Atom probe analysis of early-stage strengthening behaviour in an Al–Mg–Si–Cu alloy

The strengthening of an Al–Mg–Si–Cu alloy during natural ageing and subsequent short artificial ageing was investigated using three-dimensional atom probe (3DAP) analysis and tensile testing. The contingency table and Markov chain analyses confirmed that non-random arrangements of atoms already exist after a natural ageing time of only 3.5 h. Extensive use of particle analysis tools in the IVAS and PoSAP software packages revealed that whilst the commonly used minimum aggregate size (Nmin) of 10 is a reasonable choice, much more useful information about the system can be gained by additionally employing a wide range of larger and smaller Nmin values. In particular, it was found that the density and volume fraction of solute aggregates increased with increasing natural ageing time in the T4 condition. After a 0.5 h artificial ageing treatment at 170 °C (designated as T6), the size, volume fraction and Mg/Si ratio of the aggregates were all found to decrease with increasing prior natural ageing time. These findings are used to discuss the detrimental effect of natural ageing, where the T6 strength has been observed to decrease rapidly with increasing prior natural ageing time before stabilising after several hours of natural ageing.