Simulation and experimental study of cold compression process for reducing the quenching residual stress of large 7050 aluminum alloy cambered forging

Abstract

The wing edge (large 7050 aluminum alloy cambered forging) is the major force-bearing component of the aircraft. Reducing the quenching residual stress on the wing edge is crucial after manufacturing. In this paper, a novel cold compression process is proposed to reduce the quenching residual stress by integral deformation along the arc length direction and subsection deformation along the width direction. The obtained results demonstrate that the residual tensile stress is concentrated in the center where the sternum and ribs intersect after quenching. Matching the quenching residual stress distribution, an adaptive cold compression (2% rib + 0.5% sternum) was implemented, the residual tensile stress along the arc length direction decreases almost 80%; especially the residual stress on the rib is effectively reduced. There is little difference between the simulation results and the practical measured results, and the simulation results have great reference value.