Achieving high mechanical and corrosion properties of AA2050 Al-Li alloy: The creep aging under plastic loading

The influences of elastic/plastic loading (100–220 MPa) on the creep behavior, mechanical properties, and corrosion behavior of creep-aged AA2050 alloys were investigated. The results show that the creep rate increased from 0.35 % to 0.61 % with the increase of stress from 100 MPa to 220 MPa. The creep rate was increased rapidly under plastic loading (220 MPa) due to the increased dislocation density. Meanwhile, the plastic loading shortened the peak-aged time of creep-aged alloys and achieved outstanding strength (UTS=534 MPa, YS=496 MPa, peak aged), which increased by 33 MPa and 32 MPa compared with elastic loading, respectively. The strength enhancement was attributed to the increase in dislocation density, weak oriented precipitation effect, and dense precipitation of T₁ phases. Additionally, compared with elastic loading, GBPs under plastic loading coarsened and distributed discretely, their elements content distributed evenly, and the Cu content increased. Therefore, the intergranular corrosion (IGC) depth and stress corrosion cracking (SCC) susceptibility index (I_SSRT) decreased from 174 μm, and 8.7 % to 121 μm, and 5.9 %, respectively. These findings pave a way in breaking curvature limit of creep aging technology.