Thermo-­kinetic simulation of the yield strength evolution of AA7075 during natural aging

The yield strength evolution in aluminum alloy 7075 is investigated during natural aging. The thermo-kinetic simulation, capable of predicting nucleation, growth, coarsening and dissolution of metastable and stable hardening precipitates in Al-Zn-Mg-Cu during natural aging, is outlined briefly. A recent strengthening model for shearing and bypassing of precipitates by dislocations is utilized to calculate the evolution of the macroscopic yield strength at room temperature. The simulation accounts for vacancy-solute binding energies calculated with the help of first principles simulations that influence the diffusivity of the system due to the presence of excess quenched-in vacancies. These results provide predictions about the amount of excess vacancies trapped by solid solution alloying elements and how the lifetime of vacancies changes due to attractive or repelling binding forces between vacancies and different solid atoms in the aluminum matrix. In our approach, we calculate the strength evolution after quenching due to interaction between dislocations and changes in the microstructure by precipitation of different kinds of secondary phases. The predicted evolution of yield strength is finally verified on experimental measurements.