Investigating the precipitation hardening of 2024 aluminium alloy under different quenching media

This work investigates the effects of different quenching media on the mechanical properties of precipitation-hardenable 2024 Al-Cu Alloy. The heat treatment for the alloy requires a solution treatment at 510–530 °C for 2 h, quenching in water at 60 °C, and artificial aging at 160–190 °C for 2–8 h. This procedure was followed for water, ground oil, and air quenchant. The alloy was casted using sand casting and characterized by an X-Ray fluorescence spectrometer. Tensile testing, Rockwell hardness testing, and metallographic analysis were all carried out. The results show that the Ultimate Tensile Strength for air, water, and oil quenched alloys are 20 MPa, 67 MPa, and 85 MPa respectively. The strain at the Ultimate Tensile Strength and the fracture are [0.017, 0.035], [0.022, 0.023], and [0.046, 0.06] for the air, groundnut oil, and water quenched respectively. The results reveal that the alloy quenched in water is much more ductile than the air and oil quenched samples. The water quenched samples have the highest average hardness value of 96″ compared to 66″ and 70″ for air and groundnut oil quenched respectively.