Effects of Thickness and Pre-stretching Ratio on Quenching Residual Stress in 7050 Aluminum Alloy Thick Plate

Abstract

The quenching residual stress in 7050 aluminum alloy thick plate was simulated by using the finite element method (FEM). And the FEM model was verified the experimental results. Then the effects of thickness and pre-stretching ratio on quenching residual stress were studied using the FEM model. The simulation results showed that the quenching residual stress increases gradually with the increase of thickness. The residual stress increased rapidly with the increase of thickness when the thickness between 40mm and 80mm. While the residual stress increased slowly when the thickness exceeds 80mm. The quenching residual stress decreased gradually with the increase of pre-stretching, but the decreasing extent slowed down gradually. When the pre-stretching amount exceeded 2.5%, the reduction ratio can be achieved more than 95.0%. Considering the efficiency of the reduction of quenching residual stress as well as the economy, the pre-stretching ratio should be set between 2.5% and 3.5%.