Modeling the creep behavior of 2024-T3 Al alloy

Exposure of 2024-T3 Al alloy to an elastic loading, either for “creep age forming” and other manufacturing processes at relatively high temperature, may lead to the lasting creep deformation. The high-temperature creep behavior of 2024-T3 Al alloy was studied by the constant-stress uniaxial tensile creep experiments under the temperatures of 423, 448 and 473 K. Constitutive models, based on the θ projection method, are established to describe the high-temperature creep behavior of 2024-T3 Al alloy. The material parameters of the established constitutive models are associated with the applied creep stress and temperature. The creep strains predicted by the proposed models well agree with experimental results, which confirm that the established creep constitutive models can give an accurate and precise estimate of the high-temperature creep behavior for 2024-T3 Al alloy. The evaluated power–law stress exponent n = 3.405 and the activation energy for secondary creep Q = 85.390 kJ mol−1 indicate that the creep processes of 2024-T3 Al alloy are controlled by the dislocation viscous glide mechanism.

► The high-temperature creep behavior of 2024-T3 Al alloy was investigated.
► The proposed creep constitutive models correlate well with the experimental results.
► Dislocation viscous glide is the main creep mechanism under the tested conditions.