Quantitative study on dynamic instantaneous dissolution of precipitated phases in 2195-T6 Al-Li alloy based on characterizations with SANS and TEM

The kinetics of the dynamic instantaneous dissolution of the precipitated phases in 2195-T6 Al-Li alloy under high strain rate loading was firstly studied quantitatively by means of the small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques, and the thermodynamics and transformation mechanism were also illustrated in this paper. The high strain rate loadings were performed by the split Hopkinson pressure bar. The maximum flow stresses increased but the pulse durations decreased with increasing strain rates. TEM observations indicated that the size and volume fraction of the T1 phases decreased. The SANS fitting results showed that the radius and volume fraction of the T1 phase decreased after loading. The dissolution activation energy (Qd) was calculated to be 28.4 kJ/mol by combining the Johnsone-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov (JMAK) equation and the Arrhenius equation, indicating that the instantaneous dissolution of T1 phase was kinetically feasible. The T1 phase generated a larger distortion energy, and the surface energy as well as the internal pressure of T1 phase increased in dissolving during dynamic loading to increase the free energy difference (driving force for dissolving) between T1 phase and matrix, making the instantaneous dissolution of the T1 phases be thermodynamically feasible. The diffusion rates of Cu and Li atoms were significantly accelerated to promote the instantaneous dissolution of T1 phase particles. The results of the Vickers hardness values showed that the hardness increased after loadings, due to the high density of dislocations and only partial dissolution of the T1 phase particles.