Effect of the multiphase layer produced on surface of ZL205A aluminum alloy thin-wall barrel on quenching deformation

Aluminum-Copper alloys are widely utilized in military, aerospace and aircraft industries for its light weight, excellent castability, superior corrosion resistance, as well as high specific strength after solution, quenching and age hardening treatments. However, the distortion occurring in the quenching process limits its application, especially for the large scale complicated workpieces. In this study, a novel duplex treatment combining the coating and nitriding is applied to the sections of the thin-wall barrel that easy to deform during quenching. The results show that a gradient multiphase layer, consisting of two different regions, is shaped on the thin-wall sections easy to deform. The phase compositions of the surface and subsurface layer are dominated by TiN_0.3 and Al₃Ti, respectively. The Young's modulus of the TiN_0.3 and Al₃Ti are 199 GPa and 196 GPa respectively. While, the microhardness for both the two phases are 6.19 GPa and 4.24 GPa respectively, which are much higher than that for the aged ZL205A alloy substrate. The finite element method (FEM)simulation results show that the maximum temperature difference, thermal stress, residual stress as well as deformation of the thin-wall barrel workpiece are reduced due to the multiphase layer. Consequently, the maximum radial deformation of the workpiece can be reduced 96% due to the superior strength and hardness as well as heat conduction of the gradient multiphase layer.