Effect of the Inhomogeneity of Material Properties on the Quenching and Pre-Stretching Residual Stress in Aluminum Alloy

The effect of the inhomogeneity of the material properties on the quenching residual stress in the aluminum alloy was studied by using the finite element method simulation and the evolution of the quenching residual stress during the pre-stretching process was discussed in this paper. The results show that both the x-component and y-component of the quenching residual stresses in the non-uniform model are nearly overlapped with that in the uniform model. The effect of the inhomogeneity of the material properties on the quenching residual stress is negligible. After pre-stretching, the surface stress of the non-uniform model decreases from the middle line to the edge while the center stress increases. Contrastingly, both the surface and center stress of the uniform model are nearly stable along the same path, and the stress magnitudes are lower than that in the non-uniform model. The inhomogeneity of material properties mainly affects the pre-stretching residual stress distribution, while it has little effect on the quenching residual stress distribution.