Residual Stress Distribution of Asymmetric Quenching in Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Aluminum Alloy Plate

Abstract

The residual stress distribution for two strategies of asymmetric quenching in Al-Zn-Mg-Cu aluminum alloy plates has been simulated using the finite element method. The results show that for asymmetric quenching between the upper and lower surfaces, the through-thickness asymmetric quenching residual stress distribution lies between the two distributions corre-sponding to the heat transfer coefficients on the upper and lower surfaces respectively. The surface and central stress magnitudes are equal to the average of the stress magnitudes corresponding to the two heat transfer coefficients. For asymmetric quenching of a single surface, the surface stress distribution is the same as the heat transfer coefficient distribution and the stress magnitude is equal to the stress magnitude corresponding to the average value of the heat transfer coefficients at each location. However, the center quench residual stress distribution is approximately uniform and the stress magnitude is equal to the average of the stress magnitudes corresponding to the maximum and minimum heat transfer coefficients.