Effects of external stress aging on morphology and precipitation behavior of θ″ phase in Al-Cu alloy

The exposure of Al–5Cu alloy to an external stress with normal aging was carried out. The effects of external stress-aging on the morphology and precipitation behavior of θ″ phase were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and first principle calculation. The size of the θ″ phase precipitated plates in stress-aging (453 K, 6 h, 50 MPa) is 19.83 nm, which is smaller than that of those present (28.79 nm) in stress-free aging (453 K, 6 h). The precipitation process of θ″ phase is accelerated by loading external stress aging according to the analysis of DSC results. The apparent activation energy for the external stress-aging is 10% lower than the stress-free one. The first principle calculation results show that the external stress makes a decrease of 6% in the interface energy. The effects of the stress on aging process of the alloy are discussed on the basis of the classical theory. The external stress changes the morphology and precipitation behavior of θ″ phase because the critical nucleation energy is decreased by 19% under stress aging.