The Influence of Composition on the Clustering and Precipitation Behavior of Al-Mg-Si-Cu Alloys

The natural aging (NA) and artificial aging (AA) behavior of Al-Mg-Si-Cu alloys with different Mg/Si ratios and Cu additions were systematically investigated by means of hardness test, atom probe tomography, transmission electron microscopy, and Monte Carlo simulation. The Si-rich low-Cu alloys displayed higher hardness compared to the Mg-rich equivalents because Si atoms play a dominant role in clustering of solute atoms during both natural and artificial aging. In the high-Cu alloys, Cu did not obviously change the cluster distribution during NA, but significantly refines the clusters and precipitates due to the strong interaction of Cu atoms with Mg atoms during AA. In contrast to the low-Cu alloys, the Mg-rich high-Cu alloys exhibit higher hardness in the early and over-aged stages of artificial aging, with similar or slightly higher hardness in the peak aging condition compared to their Si-rich counterparts. Three types of precipitates (β″, Q′, and L) are favored in the high-Cu alloys. The Mg-rich high-Cu alloy has more L phase, while the Si-rich variant is abundant in Q′ phase. The negative effect of NA on subsequent AA behavior is less dependent on Mg/Si ratio in the high-Cu alloys due to a synergistic action of the residual Si and Cu atoms, but is closely related to Mg/Si ratio in low-Cu alloys.