Influence of Heat Treatments on the Fracture Toughness of 2017A Aluminium Alloy

The present study was carried out on 2017A aluminium alloy, in order to determine the influence of heat treatments on the fracture toughness determined by three point bending tests and empirical formula correlations used Charpy impact energy. The three point bending test has shown that the minimum values of fracture toughness and maximum load were found in the annealed state. Moreover, the hardening heat treatment increases them considerably, especially in the artificially aged condition of the alloy where it provided the maximum values. Schindler’s empirical formula gave the best estimation of fracture toughness in all metallurgical states of 2017A aluminium alloy.