Effect of Heat Treatment on Microstructure Evolution and Mechanical Behavior of SKLB3 Alloy

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of hot forging Cu-Ni alloy was studied. Specimens of hot forged Cu-Ni alloy were subjected to first solution treated at 900oC for 2hrs and then aged at different temperatures for 2hrs. The mechanical properties including tensile performance and impact energy, and the microstructure were measured for specimens before and after heat treatment. The results show that both solution and aging treatment have an influence on the grain growth. After heat treatment, the tensile strength decreases very slightly but the yield strength decreases seriously from 235.96MPa to 136.12MPa, while the elongation increases sharply from 36% to 48%. It was also observed that hardness values of the heat-treated alloys are all lower than that of the hot forged alloy. The measurement of Charpy impact energy with V-type notch was performed at 298K and 77K for different specimens. At both temperatures, the impact energies of the specimens are higher than 200J. The microstructure results show that at both temperatures, the alloys are fractured in a ductile mode.