Effect of an electric field applied during the solution heat treatment of the Al–Mg–Si alloy AA6022 on the subsequent natural aging kinetics

The influence of a dc electric field E = 5 kV/cm applied during the solution heat treatment (SHT) of the Al–Mg–Si alloy AA6022 at 475– 552 C on the subsequent natural aging kinetics was determined employing resistivity. It was found that the increase in the as-quenched resistivity which resulted from application of the field during SHT was retained throughout the natural aging process. An Avrami-type analysis of the natural aging kinetics gave navg. = 0.3 and kavg. = 5 · 10–2 (min–1)0.3. These values are in qualitative accord with those determined for the Al– Mg–Si–Cu alloy AA6111.