CORRELATION BETWEEN MICROSTRUCTURE AND STRESS CORROSION CRACKING SUSCEPTIBILITY OF 2091 ALLOY

The stress corrosion cracking(SCC) susceptibility of an Al-Li-Cu-Mg-Zr alloy(2091), heat-treated under different regime,has been investigated hy means of tensile tests at slow strain rate.The microstructure has been examined with TEM.The deformation characteristic has also been analysed.The stress corrosion resistance of the alloy was revealed to be mainly affected by the covering rate of T_2-phase over grain boundaries and by the average distance between T_2-phase particles. SCC resistance can be obviously improved by predeforming the alloy at room temper- ature to reduce the precipitation of T_2-phase along grain boundaries.