Computational Study of Precipitation Hardening Process Effects on Mechanical Performance of Al-Zn-Mg Alloy: Molecular Dynamics Simulation

The precipitation hardening is a heat treatment process used to increase the strength and hardness of certain alloys. The atomic analysis of this procedure can be presented valuable hints in actual applications. In current research, we used molecular dynamics (MD) method to introduce the temperature of precipitation hardening process effects on mechanical performance of Al-Zn-Mg alloy. Our MD research done in 2 main steps. Firstly, the equilibrium phase of modeled alloy reported by temperature and total energy convergence. After equilibrium phase detection, the mechanical properties of samples introduced by structural expansion process. MD results indicated the mechanical performance of Al-Zn-Mg alloy improved appreciably by using precipitation hardening process rather to pure aluminum sample. Furthermore, simulations outputs predicted the 473 K is appropriate temperature in precipitation hardening process of designed alloy. The ultimate strength and Young’s modulus of Al-Zn-Mg alloy increased to 348.98 MPa and 69.46 GPa (respectively) in optimum condition which should be supposed in mechanical applications.