Effects of creep-aging processing on the corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of an Al–Cu–Mg alloy

Abstract Creep-aging forming, combining both the aging treatment and forming process, has recently drawn much attention of researchers. In this study, the effects of creep-aging processing on the corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of a typical Al–Cu–Mg alloy (2024 aluminium alloy) are investigated by electrochemical corrosion, exfoliation corrosion and uniaxial tensile experiments. The results show that the corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of the studied Al–Cu–Mg alloy are strongly sensitive to the creep-aging processing parameters. The creep-aging processing can change the dimension and density of nanoprecipitates, which greatly affects the corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of the studied Al–Cu–Mg alloy. With the increase of creep-aging temperature, the corrosion resistance and the elongation decrease, while the yield strength and ultimate tensile strength increase. For the materials creep-aged in “under aging” and “peak aging” conditions, the applied stress can increase the ultimate tensile strength, but deteriorate the corrosion resistance.