Influence of prestraining on the aging response of an Al-Cu-Li alloy

The influence of prestraining on the aging response of an Al-Cu-Li alloy is investigated by preparation of different strain states (3 %, 4 %, 6 %) of the initial aging state. The Brinell hardness of the subsequently aged samples (up to 60 h aging time) was measured and it was found that the increasing dislocation concentration in the 3 different initial states leads to faster hardness increases and slightly higher maximum hardness.