Microstructure and high temperature stability of age hardenable AA2219 aluminium alloy modified by Sc, Mg and Zr additions

The present work pertains to the improvement of high temperature stability of age hardenable AA2219 aluminium-copper (6.3%) alloy. Addition of scandium, magnesium and zirconium to the base metal AA2219 was adopted to improve this high temperature stability. These additions were systematically varied by preparing alloys of different composition using gas tungsten arc melting. Long time ageing studies and impression creep technique were used to study the high temperature stability of the alloys. These modified compositions of the alloy resulted in fine equiaxed grains, refined eutectics, large number of high temperature stable and finer precipitates. Among all the compositions, 0.8% Sc + 0.45% Mg + 0.2% Zr addition was found to be significant in improving the high temperature stability of AA2219 alloy. This may be attributed to the possible microstructural changes, solute enrichment of the matrix and pinning of the grain boundaries by the finer precipitates.