Kinetics of grain growth in 2024-T3: An aerospace aluminum alloy

The 2024-T3 aerospace aluminum alloy has been characterized and annealed by use of modern material characterization, metallographic and heat treatment equipments. The kinetic equations and the Arrhenius-type equation were applied to compute the grain-growth exponent and the activation energies for grain growth for the investigated alloy at specified temperature. The grain-growth exponent n was computed to be in the range of 0.116–0.121 at temperatures in the range of 250–350 °C (523–623 K). The activation energy for grain growth, Qg, for the investigated alloy has been computed to be 157.1 kJ/mol for the mentioned range of n values. The grain-growth kinetic data for the investigated alloy has been compared with other aluminum and engineering alloys; and analyzed in relation to those reported in recent literature.