A Study on Precipitation Kinetics of an Al-Cu-Li Alloy

Aluminum-Copper-Lithium alloys are of strategic important [1] in lightweight aerospace structures due to their high specific modulus and specific strength and are under consideration for one of the potential choices for Korea Space Launch Vehicle structure. However, this is one of the most complicated alloys due to the precipitation of a large number of second phase particles. In this study, the precipitation kinetics of an Al-4.3%Cu-1.2%Li alloy was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique since precipitation plays an important role for hardening of this alloy. Several models including Kissinger’s, Starink’s and Chaturvedi’s were used to obtain the activation energy and precipitation kinetics.