Aluminum Alloy for Aerospace

Structures
 Aluminum Alloys
• Al is used in large proportion in aircraft as compared with other major
aerospace materials; Steel, Ti, Mg and FRP
• Around 400,000 tonne of Al is used each year to mfg military and civil
aircraft
• Al accounts for 60–80% of airframe weight of most modern passenger
aircraft, helicopters and space vehicles.
• Al is likely to remain important structural material despite growing use of
composites in large passenger airliners; Airbus 380, Boeing 787, etc.
• Airframe of most modern military aircraft consists of 40–60% Al, which is
less than used in commercial airliners
 Aluminum Alloys
• Al is a popular aerospace structural material for many important reasons,
including:
– moderate cost;
– ease of fabrication, including casting, forging and heat-treatment
– light weight (density of only 2.7 g/cm3)
– high specific stiffness and specific strength
– good ductility, fracture toughness and fatigue resistance
– good control of properties by mechanical and thermal treatments

• disadvantages of using Al alloys in aircraft structures includes:

– low mechanical properties at elevated temperature (softening occurs
above ~150 °C)
– age-hardenable alloys cannot be easily welded
– corrosion when in contact with carbon-fibre composites (CFRP)
– susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking
• susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking increases with improvement in
strength gained by thermal ageing
• Special ageing treatments have been developed to minimise risk of stress
corrosion damage in Al structures
 Aluminum
AluminumAlloys types
Alloy Types
• Al alloys are classified as:
– casting
– wrought non-heat-treatable - not used in aerospace structures
– wrought heat-treatable
• Mechanical properties of casting alloys are inferior to wrought alloys, and
are used in small, non-load-bearing parts/components on aircraft
• Wrought heat-treatable Al alloys are used in aircraft structures which
strength properties can be improved by plastic forming (extrusion, drawing,
rolling, etc) and appropriate heat treatment.
• Heat treatment refers to any heating condition employed to:
– change metallurgical structure (crystal structure, grain size, dislocation
density, precipitates)
– Enhance mechanical properties (yield strength, fatigue resistance,
fracture toughness)
– Enhance environmental durability (corrosion / oxidation resistance)
– change internal residual stress state
• Heat treatment of wrought Al alloys implies processes employed to increase
the strength by aging or precipitation hardening
• Yield strength of age-hardenable Al alloys is typically 450 to 600 MPa
 Al Alloy Designation System
• Al alloy is designated by four-digit number
– First digit indicates the series number.
– For example, 1XXX indicates 1000 series, 2XXX is 2000 series alloy, and
so forth.
– Second digit indicates number of modifications to the alloy type.
– For example, with alloy 5352 Al the second digit (3) indicates that the
alloy has been modified three times, but has a similar composition to
earlier versions 5052 Al, 5152 Al and 5252 Al.
– Last two digits only have meaning for the 1000 series alloys. In this
series, the last two digits specify the minimum purity level of the
aluminum.
– For example, 1200 Al has a min purity of 99.00% and 1145 Al is at least
99.45% pure.
– Last two digits in 2000 to 8000 series has no meaningful relationship to
alloy content and serves no purpose other than to identify the different
alloys in a series.
• For cast alloys, a decimal point is located between the last two digits.
• After these digits, a hyphen and temper designation is marked by a letter
and one- to three-digit number, indicating mechanical and/or heat
treatment condition of the alloy.
 Al Alloy Designation System

• UNS for wrought Al alloys uses same number as the Al Association designation
but precedes it with “A9” (for example, UNS A95052 for 5052).
 Temper Designation
• Temper is a forging and thermal treatment performed on Aluminum product
to achieve the desired level of metallurgical properties.
Additional digits may be added to designations T1 through T10 for variations in treatment.

Stress relieved by stretching:

T_51—Applies to plate and rolled or cold-finished rod or bar, die or ring forgings, and rolled rings when
stretched after solution heat treatment or after cooling from an elevated temperature shaping process.
The products receive no further straightening after stretching.
(Example: 6061-T651)
T_510—Applies to extruded rod, bar, profiles, and tubes and to drawn tube when stretched after solution
heat treatment or after cooling from an elevated temperature shaping process.
T_511—Applies to extruded rod, bar, profiles, and tubes and to drawn tube when stretched after solution
heat treatment or after cooling from an elevated temperature shaping process. These products may
receive minor straightening after stretching to comply with standard tolerances.
These stress-relieved temper products usually have larger tolerances on dimensions than products of
other tempers.

Stress relieved by compressing:

T_52—Applies to products that are stress relieved by compressing after solution heat treatment or
cooling from an elevated temperature shaping process to produce a permanent set of 1 to 5%.

Stress relieved by combined stretching and compressing:

T_54—Applies to die forgings that are stress relieved by restriking cold in finish die.
For wrought products heat treated from annealed or F temper (or other temper when such heat
treatments result in the mechanical properties assigned to these tempers):
T42—Solution heat treated from annealed or F temper and naturally aged to a substantially stable
condition (Example: 2024-T42)
T62—Solution heat treated from annealed or F temper and artificially aged (Example: 6066-T62)
 Age-hardenable Al Alloys
• 2000, 6000, 7000 and many 8000 alloys can be strengthened by age-
hardening, necessary to obtain the strength needed for use in highly
loaded aircraft structure.

2000 series Al alloys (Al–Cu)

• 2000-series main alloying element is Cu, which readily forms high strength
precipitates when Al is age-hardened by heat treatment.
• 2000 alloys are characterized by high strength, fatigue resistance and
toughness.
• 2024 Al (Al–4.4Cu–1.5Mg) is the most common alloy, in use for many years to
mfg stringers, longerons, spars, bulkheads, carry-throughs, stressed skins and
trusses.
• Newer alloy; 2054 Al has 15–20% higher fracture toughness and twice the
fatigue resistance of 2024 Al. Other 2000 series used in aircraft include 2018 Al,
2025 Al, 2048 Al, 2117 Al and 2124 Al.
• Cu, Mg and Zn provide high strength through SSS and PH.
• Reducing impurities, particularly Fe & Si, result in higher fracture toughness
and better resistance to fatigue crack initiation and growth.
 Age-hardenable Al Alloys
6000 series Al alloys (Al–Mg–Si)
• Principal alloying elements in 6000 series are Mg & Si.
• 6000 series alloys are used generally in non-aerospace
components, such as buildings, rail cars, boat hulls, ship
superstructures and, increasingly in automotive parts.
• 6061 Al (Al–1%Mg–0.6Si) is used in aircraft wing ribs, ducting,
tanks, fairing and framework due to low fracture toughness.
 Age-hardenable Al Alloys
7000 series Al alloys (Al–Cu–Zn)
• Cu & Zn are main alloying elements in 7000 alloys, with Zn content 3-4
times higher than Cu. Mg is also important alloying element.
• These elements form high-strength precipitates when Al is age-
hardened.
• 7000 & 2000 series Al alloys represent most common Al alloys used in
aircraft.
• Yield strength of 7000 alloys is 470-600 MPa and 2000 alloys is about
300-450 MPa.
• 7000 alloys are used in aircraft structures including; upper wing
surfaces, spars, stringers, framework, pressure bulkheads and carry-
through structure.
• 7075 Al is the most often used in aircraft structures.
• Other 7000 series alloys used in aircraft include; 7049 Al, 7050 Al, 7079
Al, 7090 Al, 7091 Al, 7178 Al and 7475 Al.
 Age-hardenable Al Alloys
8000 series Al alloys (Al–Li)
• Al alloys that cannot be classified as per its chemical composition in any one
of 1000 to 7000 series, are allocated to 8000 series.
• Several 8000 alloys contain Lithium, having unique behavior as it reduces
density while simultaneously increase elastic modulus and tensile strength.
• 8000 series alloys are characterized by high specific stiffness and also have
superior fatigue resistance compared with 2000 and 7000 alloys.
• Density of Al decrease by 3% and modulus increases by 5% for every 1%
addition of Li, showing significant weight savings for large Al structures.
• Al–Li alloys most often used in aerospace structures are 8090 Al (2.4%Li–
1.3%Cu–0.9Mg), 8091 Al (2.6%Li–1.9%Cu–0.9%Mg), and 8092 Al (2.4%Li–
0.65%Cu–1.2%Mg).
• 8000 series alloys are expensive and are used selectively as aerospace
structural material, where cost is not as issue and high specific stiffness and
excellent fatigue performance is critical
Examples:
• 8092 Al alloys are used in fuselage frames of F16 as replacement for 2024 Al, resulting
in 3X increase in fatigue life, 5% reduction in weight and higher stiffness.
• 8090 Al is used in the fuselage of EH 101 helicopter, improved fatigue performance and
lower weight by 180 kg
• Al–Li alloys are used in super lightweight tanks for space shuttle, providing weight
saving of ~ 3 tonne, resulting in increase in shuttle payload.
 Thermal ageing of Al Alloys

• Ageing process transforms supersaturated solid solution to precipitate particles

which greatly enhance strength properties, required for aerospace structures.
• Ageing can occur at room temperature ‘natural ageing’, or at elevated temperature
‘artificial ageing’.
• Natural ageing is generally a slow process and its effects may only become significant
after many months or years
 Thermal ageing of Al Alloys

Artificial ageing is performed in the range of 150 to 200°C for times between
several minutes to many hours, depending on part size and desired amount
of hardening
 High-temperature strength of Al
• Material properties; stiffness, strength, fatigue resistance and toughness of Al
alloys degrade at high temperature (100–150°C)
• Thermal softening is a key factor in selection of Al alloys for aerospace
structures that experience large temperature rise due to frictional heating of
skin at high speeds/Mach Nos
• Hottest parts of the aircraft are; nose cone, wing leading edges and tail
sections, where temperatures exceeds 150 °C at around Mach 2.0
• Temperatures exceeding 1000 °C are experienced during re-entry of space
shuttle and temperatures above 500 °C can occur in ultra-high speed aircraft.

For use at higher temperatures,

Al must be thermally protected
by a heat shield, such as ceramic
tiles.
Titanium Alloys
 Titanium Alloys
• Ti alloys are used in airframe structures, landing gear components and jet
engine parts for their unique combination of properties:
– Moderate density, high strength, long fatigue life, fracture toughness,
creep strength, excellent resistance to corrosion and oxidation.
• Ti is about half the density of steels or super alloys and has excellent
strength to weight ratio.
• Ti alloys have good mechanical performance at high temperature (up to
500–600 °C), which is well above the operating temperature limit of
lightweight aerospace materials such as Al alloys, Mg alloys and FRP.
• Ti is found naturally in abundance. However, technology for ore reduction to
metal and mfg processes are cost intensive, limiting use on aerospace
structures.
• Ti is although weldable, but is difficult to machine and requires specialist
machining processes to produce damage free aircraft components.
 Titanium Alloys
• Ti is an important engineering material in gas turbine engines, currently it
accounts for 25–30% of weight of most modern engines.
• Ti is used in engine components required to operate at temperatures up to
500–600 °C.
• Ti is used for fan blades, inlet region shafts and casings, LP compressors
blades and discs; plug and nozzle assys in exhaust section, engine frames,
casings, manifolds, ducts and tubes.
• Ti is also an important material for heavily-loaded airframe structures;
including wing boxes, wings and undercarriage parts.
• Forged Ti is used in airframes requiring high strength and high toughness or
when there is too little airframe space for Al alloys.
• Ti is used as a replacement material for Steel in landing gear to eliminate
problem hydrogen embrittlement and achieve a significant weight saving.
• Ti is unsuitable for combustion chamber and other sections where
temperature exceeds 600 °C. Above 600 °C, Ti rapidly softens, creeps and
oxidixes, and more heat-resistant materials such as Ni alloys are required.
 Titanium Alloys
• Ti accounts for 9-10% of structural weight of A380 and B777.
• Ti is used in higher %age in military aircraft (10–30%) to withstand higher
airframe loads generated by extreme maneuvers during combat operations.
• Ti alloys account for ~26% (or 7000 kg) of structural weight of F-14 Tomcat,
F/A-18 Hornet and F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft.
• Specific stiffness of Ti alloys is slightly lower than other aerospace materials.
• However, specific strength of Ti alloys are superior to other materials (except
carbon–epoxy composite), and for this reason Ti is a good materials to use
in high loaded aircraft structures.
• Ti is often selected for use at temperatures too high for Al or FRP but where
the temperatures/loads do not dictate the use of Steel or Ni-super alloys if
weight is a key consideration.
 Types of Ti alloy
• A metallurgical property of Ti alloys that is important in their use in
aircraft is allotropy.
– Ti alloys : HCP crystal structure (α-Ti) and BCC structure (β-Ti) at room
temperature

• α-Ti has better creep resistance and ductility at high temperature than
β-Ti, which makes it more suited for aero engine applications.
• β-Ti has higher tensile strength and fatigue resistance than α-Ti owing
to fewer slip systems in BCC crystal, which makes it better suited for
highly-loaded aircraft structures.
α-Ti β-Ti
 Types of Ti alloy
• α+β-Ti occurs when Ti contains both α-Ti and β-Ti grains.
• α+β-Ti alloys generally have better strength than α-Ti alloys and
higher creep strength and ductility than β-Ti alloys, which makes it
useful for both aircraft engines and structures.
• Commercially pure forms of Ti are classified according to ASTM
standard, although not all countries have adopted this system.
• ASTM standard simply classifies the metal types according to a
numbering system, e.g. Grade 1, Grade 2 and so on
• Pure Ti is rarely, if ever, used in aircraft.
• However, pure Ti ability to retain strength and toughness at very low
temperatures is useful for space vehicles cryogenic applications.
• Ex: fuel tanks containing liquid hydrogen stored below –210 °C .
 Super-α and Near-α Ti alloys
• Super-α alloys contain a large amount of α-stabilising alloying elements (>5 wt%) and are
composed entirely of α -Ti grains.
• Near-α alloys contain large amount of α -stabilisers with smaller quantity of β-stabilising
elements (<2 wt%).
• Near-α alloys have higher strength properties than super-α alloys, owing to small amount
of the hard β-Ti phase, and also have excellent creep resistance at high temperature.
• Near- α alloys are preferred over super-alpha alloys in components for gas turbine
engines and rocket propulsion systems, required to operate for longer duration at 500–
600 °C.
 Super-α and Near-α Ti alloys
• Strengthening of α-Ti alloys is achieved by work hardening, solid solution
hardening and grain-size refinement.
• Al is the main alloying element used to stabilize α-phase and to increase
the creep and tensile strengths.
• Adding more than 9% Al promotes formation of brittle Titanium Aluminide
(Ti3Al) precipitates that reduce fracture toughness and ductility
 α+β Ti alloys
• α+β Ti alloys are the most important Ti alloys used in aircraft.
• Popularity is due to its excellent high temperature creep strength, ductility
and toughness (from α-Ti phase) and high tensile strength and fatigue
resistance (from β-Ti phase).
• Of the many types of α+β Ti alloys, Ti–6Al–4V (IMI318) is the most used
Ti alloy in aircraft.
• Ti–6Al–4V is used in both jet engines and airframes; it accounts for about
60% of the Ti used in jet engines and up to 80–90% for airframes.
Super Alloys
 Super Alloys
• Thrust of 1950 era jet engines was limited due to high temperature
metallurgical limitation of available metals.
• Engine temperature was limited by heat resistance of materials, which must
not distort, soften, creep, oxidize or corrode under high stress and
temperature.
• Super alloys played a key role in development of high thrust engines since
1950s when the era of jet-powered aircraft and rocketry began as it can
operate up to 950-1300 °C for long periods
• Super alloys possess many properties required by a modern jet engine
material such as high strength, long fatigue life, fracture toughness, high
temperature properties as creep resistance, stress-rupture resistance, resist
corrosion and oxidation
• In last 20 years, maximum engine temperature has risen over 50% resulting
in over 60% increase in thrust, fuel consumption has fallen by 15–20% and
modern gas turbine engine (747 Jumbo) can operate for more than 20,000
hours between maintenance operations.
• This remarkable improvement in jet engine technology is attributed to
super alloys having improved high-temperature properties and durability.
 Jet Engine Material Requirements
• Materials for modern jet engines must survive extreme temperatures and
high stress for long periods.
• For example, turbine blades are designed to last at least 10,000 flt hrs, which
is equivalent to 8 Mil km of flight, at temperatures up to ~1200-1300 °C.
• At this temperature, turbine blades rotate at more than 10,000 rpm,
generate speed of 1200-1400 kph at blade tip and stress of about 180 MPa at
blade root.
• To perform under such extreme conditions, materials used in hot sections of
jet engines must have outstanding properties, including:
– high yield stress and ultimate strength to prevent yield and failure;
– high ductility and fracture toughness to provide impact resistance and damage
tolerance;
– high resistance to the initiation and growth of fatigue cracks to provide long
operating life;
– high creep resistance and stress rupture strength;
– resistance against hot corrosive gases and oxidation;
– low thermal expansion to maintain close tolerances between rotating parts.
 Materials used in Jet Engine
• Ni based super alloys account for over 50% of engine weight and are used in
engine components that operate above 550 °C
• Super alloys are used in the hottest components; turbine blades, discs,
vanes and combustion chamber, low-pressure turbine casing, shafts,
afterburners and thrust reversers where the temperatures are 900–1300 °C.
• Density of super alloys is 8–9 g/cm3, about twice as dense as Ti and three
times denser than Al.
• Lighter materials are used whenever possible to reduce the engine weight.
For example:
– Ti alloys use is restricted to components in fan and compressor sections where
the temperature is less than 550 °C. Ti is used on the leading edges of carbon-
fibre fan blades.
– Al alloys and fibre–polymer composites can only be used in coolest regions of
the engine (~ 150 °C) such as the fan blades and inlet casing.
Material distribution in Boeing 787 aircraft
turbine engine (General Electric -CF6)
 Nickel-based Super alloys
• Most materials experience rapid creep at temperatures of 30–40% of its
Tm. For example, Al and Ti alloys, used in the cooler regions of jet engines,
creep rapidly above 150 and 350 °C, respectively.
• Ni super alloys has outstanding resistance against creep and stress rupture
at high temperature. Ni super alloys resist creep so well they can be used
over 70% of its Tm (1280 °C).
• Ni-based super alloys have Ni up to about 50% by weight. It may contain
different alloying elements, including; Cr (10–20%), Al & Ti (up to 8%
combined), and Co (5–15%), along with small amounts of Molybdenum,
Tungsten and Carbon.
• The types and concentration of alloying elements determines whether Ni
super alloy is a SS or PH-hardened material.
• PH super alloys are used in hottest engine components, with their high-
temperature strength and creep resistance improved by the presence of
precipitates that have high thermal stability.
Nickel-based Super alloys
 Ni-based Super alloys
• Super alloys are not named or numbered; they are usually given their name
by the company that developed or commercialized it.
• The most important for aerospace is Inconel 718, most commonly used Ni
super alloys used in jet engines. For example,
– Inconel 718 accounts for 34% of the material in the GE CF6 engine used on Boeing 787
– Hastelloy X and Inconel 625 are often used in combustion cans
– Inconel 901, Rene 95 and Discaloy are used in turbine discs.
• Ni super alloys are available in extruded, forged and rolled forms.
• Higher strength forms are generally only found in the cast condition, such
as directional and single crystal castings.
• PWA1480 and PWA1422 are special types of super alloys used in turbine
blades that are produced by single crystal (SX) and directional solidification
(DS) methods, respectively.
• Casting process improves creep resistance of materials by minimizing or
eliminating the presence of grain boundaries that are aligned transverse to
the load direction.
 Fe-Ni super alloys
• Fe–Ni super alloys are used in jet engines for their high-temperature
properties and low thermal expansion.
• Fe–Ni super alloys expand less than Ni or Co super alloys at high
temperature and are generally less expensive than Ni and Co-based super
alloys.
• Fe–N super alloys contain 15–60% Fe and 25–45% Ni, are used in blades,
discs and engine casings that require low thermal expansion properties.
• Fe–Ni super alloys are hardened by solid solution and precipitation
strengthening.
• Aluminium, Niobium and Carbon are used as alloying elements to promote
the formation of hard intermetallic precipitates
• Chromium is used to form an oxide surface layer to protect the metal from
hot corrosive gases and oxidation.
 Cobalt super alloys
• Co-super alloys are used in jet engine components that require excellent
corrosion resistance against hot combustion gases.
• Co-alloys contain 30–60% Co, 10–35% Ni, 20–30% Cr, 5–10% Tungsten, and
less than 1% carbon
• Main functions of the alloying elements are to harden the Co by SS or PH
strengthening.
• Precipitates that form in Co alloys do not provide the same large
improvement in high-temperature strength as Ni alloys and, for this reason,
creep resistance of Co alloys and stress rupture is inferior to PH Ni-based
and Fe-Ni alloys.
• Co provide good resistance against corrosive compounds in the combustion
gas than Ni-based and Fe-Ni alloys, and are generally used in components
that operate under low stresses and need excellent hot-corrosion
resistance.
• Co alloys increase operating life and reduces maintenance of engine parts
 Thermal barrier coatings
• Thermal barrier coatings are multilayer ceramic film applied
to super alloy surface to increase the operating temperature
of the engine.
• Thermal barrier coating has higher thermal stability and lower
thermal conductivity than Ni super alloy and its use allows
higher operating temperatures (typically at least 170 °C) in the
turbine section.
• The coating provides heat insulation and lowers the
temperature of the super alloy engine component.
• Yttria-stabilised zirconia (YSZ) is the most common coating
material, and is used on engine components in the combustor
chamber and turbine sections, including high-pressure blades
and nozzle guide vanes.