Deformation and heat treatment are important means to strengthen aluminum alloys. However, the influence mechanism of pre-strain on aging precipitation kinetics and its effect on mechanical properties are still not clear. In this work, uniaxial isothermal tensile tests with different strains and artificial aging treatments for Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys have been carried out. Then, a model describing the precipitates kinetic behavior has been developed to investigate the effect of thermal pre-strain on subsequent aging precipitation kinetics and peak aging microhardness based on the microstructure characterization by TEM, SAXS and XRD tests. In addition, the role of dislocations on the aging precipitation kinetics is also explored. The experimental results show that the peak aging microhardness of the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy reveals a tendency to decrease and increase and then the peak aging time firstly decreases and then keeps almost constant with the increase in the strain. The calculations demonstrate that the precipitate average size almost remains unchanged, while the precipitate volume fraction decreases and then increases with the increase in strain, which is consistent with the change in peak aging microhardness. It also indicates that dislocations can promote precipitate nucleation and growth, while the actual effect depends on the dislocation density, which is closely dependent on the pre-deformation condition, especially for the precipitate nucleation. In particular, when the dislocation density after thermal pre-deformation is not enough, it will slightly inhibit precipitate nucleation but promote precipitate growth, which could shorten the peak aging time, with the peak aging strength being guaranteed.
Keywords: Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy; aging precipitation kinetics; dislocations; modeling; thermal deformation.