Materials and Design 92 (2016) 880–887

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Materials and Design

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Comparison of microstructure and mechanical properties of TIG and laser

welding joints of a new Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy
Liang Zhang ⁎, Xiaoyan Li, Zuoren Nie, Hui Huang, Lanqiang Niu
The Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Sheets of a new Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy with T6 temper were welded using TIG and laser welding method. Micro-
Received 29 October 2015 structure characteristics and mechanical properties of joints were contrastively analyzed. Results show that
Received in revised form 8 December 2015 the width of the fusion zone (FZ) and heat affected zone (HAZ) in laser joint is obviously smaller. The FZs in
Accepted 20 December 2015
TIG and laser joints are both made up of dendritic equiaxed grains and lots of coarse particles, the mean grain
Available online 23 December 2015
size is 33.9 μm and 6.1 μm respectively, and the coarse particles are identified as the T (AlZnMgCu) phase. The
Keywords:
two factors of grain size and alloying elements distribution are combined to result in almost the same microhard-
Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy ness of the two FZs. Moreover, the grain morphology, grain size and degree of recrystallization of the two HAZs
Welding are almost the same with base metal (BM). Due to the higher heating and cooling rate of welding thermal cycles
TIG in HAZ of laser joint, the microhardness is obviously higher. The minimum microhardness of the two joints is ob-
Laser tained in FZ where the fractures always occur in the tensile tests, the ultimate tensile strength of TIG and laser
Microstructure joints is 436.2 MPa and 471.1 MPa, the elongation of them is about 7.5% and 5.1% respectively.
Mechanical properties © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Zr and Er have been found to be very beneficial to mechanical proper-

The heat treatable Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloys (7XXX series) have been
widely used in the aerospace, high-speed train, automotive, ship-
building etc. industries for their attractive properties after the appropri-
ate heat treatment, especially their high specific strength [1–3]. At pres-
ent, most of these alloys are connected employing mechanical fastening
methods, even though the fusion welding has been used to join Al–Mg,
Al–Mg–Si, Al–Zn–Mg etc. alloys in many industrial productions which
reduce both the weight and costs [4–6]. The main obstruction is that
the traditional Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy joints made by fusion welding
methods have high hot cracking susceptibility, which is attributed to
the Cu element in alloys according to previous studies, such as Lin and
Sun indicated that the cracking sensitivity increased dramatically
when the Cu content exceeded 0.8 wt.% in high and middle strength
Al–Zn–Mg alloys by Houldcroft tests [7]; Xu reported that the Cu con-
tent should below 0.4 wt.% to inhibit hot cracking in many Al–Zn–Mg al-
loys with trace Zr addition [8]. However, the growth of Cu content
(usually below 3 wt.%) leads to increase of strength, stress corrosion
and fatigue resistance [9–11]. So the traditional high strength Al–Zn–
Mg–Cu alloys, e.g. 7075, 7050, 7055, always keep the content of Cu
from 1.2 to 3.0 wt.% for high strength and corrosion resistance at the ex-
pense of weldability. Fortunately, some microalloying elements such as
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: zhangliang0202@163.com (L. Zhang).
ties, corrosion resistance, weldability of Al–Zn–Mg–Cu and other alumi-
num alloys, and these effects have been confirmed to come from the
formation of thermodynamic stability nanometric Al3M (M may be Zr,
Er, ErxZr1 − x) dispersoids that are L12-ordered structures and coherent
with Al [12–18].
According to the research results described above, a new Al–Zn–
Mg–Cu alloy containing lower Cu content and microalloyed with Er, Zr
elements has been invented by Huang et al. [19], and in the preliminary
study, it has been found that its yield strength and ultimate tensile
strength could go up to 633.0 MPa and 686.5 MPa with T6 temper,
which is almost equivalent to the famous 7055 alloy, and when it treat-
ed as T7 temper, the exfoliation corrosion grade is PC and ultimate ten-
sile strength is 626.0 MPa, moreover, the hot cracking tendency of this
alloy is also very low in the primary welding tests [20]. In one word,
this alloy could be recognized as a potential weldable high strength
structural material.
So far, the microstructure characteristics and mechanical properties
of the fusion welding joints produced by Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy have not
been entirely clear because they have been treated as unweldable mate-
rials for a long time. And even fewer studies focus on the differences of
microstructure and mechanical properties of TIG and laser welding
joints of Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloys. The purpose of present work is to study
the effect of these two most common fusion welding methods on micro-
structure and mechanical properties of the new Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy,
and provide a reference for its welding application. Particular emphasis

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2015.12.117
0264-1275/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 L. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 92 (2016) 880–887 881

Table 1 in the air. Besides, butting surfaces were burnished with a steel brush
Chemical composition of the BM, filler wire and FZ (wt.%). before welding.
Zn Mg Cu Mn Zr Er Fe Al The butt welding was performed using an automatic TIG welding
BM 7.83 2.87 0.67 0.50 0.23 0.14 0.05 87.71
machine and a 6-kW fiber laser system respectively, and the welding
Filler wire – 4.70 – 0.74 0.11 0.24 0.11 94.10 direction was perpendicular to the rolling direction of BM. The main pa-
FZ in TIG joint 6.89 2.74 0.54 0.56 0.21 0.19 0.08 88.79 rameters of welding that had been optimized according to weld appear-
FZ in laser joint 7.24 2.82 0.72 0.50 0.22 0.14 0.09 88.28 ance quality and tensile property are listed in Table 2. So the heat input
can be achieved as about 250 J/mm and 50 J/mm in TIG and laser
welding respectively.
Table 2 After welding, the defects in the joint were investigated using X-ray
Welding parameters for experiments. radiography firstly. Then the macrograph of the cross-section of joints
TIG welding Laser welding was observed using a stereoscopic microscope. Additionally, the grain
TIG current (A) 125 –
morphology of FZ, heat affected zone (HAZ), BM was observed using
TIG voltage (V) 12 – electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD), the alloying element
Laser power (KW) – 2.3 distribution in FZ and BM was analyzed using the back scatter electron
Welding speed (mm/min) 270 2400 imaging of scanning electron microscope (SEM) and electron probe mi-
Wire feed speed(mm/min) 400 –
croanalysis (EPMA).
Flow rate of Ar (L/min) 15 15
The welding thermal cycle in HAZ of both joints was achieved using
the Visual–Weld simulation software, the heat source model of TIG and
is placed on the possible benefits of laser welding compare with TIG be- laser was double ellipsoid model and 3D conical Gaussian model that
cause of its high energy density. are both widely used in finite element modeling. At last, the simulation
results were checked by the thermocouple measurements. The precipi-
2. Material and experimental procedures tates distribution in HAZ of the two joints was observed using the
JEM2010 transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The TEM specimens
The new Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy with the thickness of 2 mm was select- were prepared by sectioning, mechanical polishing down to 100 μm,
ed as the base metal (BM). And for the TIG welding, an Al–Mg alloy with and electrochemical polishing with a twin-jet electropolisher, using
the diameter of 1.6 mm was used as filler wire; for the laser welding, 30% nitric acid and 70% methanol solution at −30 °C with a voltage of
none filler metal was used. The chemical composition of BM, filler 13 V.
wire, fusion zone (FZ) in TIG and laser joints tested by X-ray fluores- The tensile tests at room temperature of BM and weld joints were
cence is exhibited in Table 1. carried out according to ISO 6892-1:2009 and ISO 4136:2001 standards
The rolled sheets of BM with T6 temper were sheared into weld sam- on an AG-250KNIS testing system at a strain rate of 10−2/s, the gauge
ple size of 100 × 90 mm2. In order to reduce pores in joints mostly length of extensometers was 50 mm for all samples, and every final
caused by the oxidation film, samples were cleaned by 8% sodium hy- test result was the average value of three tests. Vickers microhardness
droxide solution at 60 °C and 30% nitric acid solution at room tempera- was measured under a load of 1000 gf sustaining 10 s along the cross-
ture in sequence, then, they were rinsed under flowing water and dried section of the joint.

Fig. 1. X-ray radiography images of the weld joints: (a) TIG weld joint; (b) laser weld joint (weld length: 100 mm).

Fig. 2. Macrographs of cross section of the weld joints: (a) TIG weld joint; (b) laser weld joint.
882 L. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 92 (2016) 880–887

Fig. 3. The grain morphology and grain size measurement of different zones in the joints: (a) FZ in TIG joint; (b) FZ in laser joint; (c) HAZ in TIG joint; (d) HAZ in laser joint; (e) BM.
 L. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 92 (2016) 880–887 883

Fig. 4. The back scatter electron images of different zones: (a) FZ in TIG joint; (b) FZ in laser joint; (c) BM.

3. Results and discussions
3.1. Macrographs and X-ray radiography images of the weld joints
Firstly, the weld defects, e.g. pore, hot checking, poor fusion, were
detected using X-ray radiography, and the result is shown in Fig. 1. Ob-
viously, there are no evident weld defects except very few pores that are
marked by white arrows. Generally speaking, the weld quality of the
two joints is satisfactory.
Next, the macrographs of the two joints are exhibited in Fig. 2, it can
be seen that the full penetration joints are obtained. Moreover, the fu-
sion line (FL) are not straight in both joints, and the width of FZ in TIG
joint is varying from about 6 mm of top to 4 mm of bottom, FZ width
varies from about 1.5 mm to 1 mm in laser joint. It is obvious that the
laser welding creates a narrower FZ, and this may mainly because of
its higher energy density and lower heat input.
lower, the weld pool size is smaller, so the weld pool solidifies more rap-
idly, the degree of supercooling is higher, and the nucleation of grains is
promoted, while grain growth is inhibited.
Fig. 3c–e shows the grain morphology in HAZ and BM of the two
joints. Obviously, grains in both HAZs are elongated along the rolling di-
rection and maintain the pancake morphology, which is almost the
same as BM. According to the statistic, the size of most grains in the
two HAZs and BM is less than 10 μm, which leads to the small mean
grain size of 5.9 μm, 7.4 μm and 5.7 μm respectively. Meanwhile, the de-
gree of recrystallization is analyzed through statistic of the internal av-
erage misorientation angle within the grains, and the result is that the
degree of recrystallization of HAZ and BM is 11.7%, 9.5%, 8.2%. That is,
the weld heat input has little effect on the grain size and degree of re-
crystallization in HAZ of the two joints, this may mainly because of the
dramatic effects of Er and Zr on the recrystallization resistance through
forming of Al3Er and Al3Zr dispersoids [15].

3.2. The grain morphology of the joints 3.3. Alloying elements distribution

The EBSD technology has been employed more and more to study The back scatter electron images of SEM based on difference of
the grain morphology rather than traditional optical metallograph in- atomic number were used to detect the alloying elements distribution.
spection in recent years due to its high clarity and accuracy [21]. In As shown in Fig. 4, the dark areas are Al matrixes, and whitish parts
the present work, the grain morphology in FZ, HAZ, BM of the two joints are primary phases containing many alloying elements.
was observed and the grain size was measured using EBSD, it should be It can be seen that lots of primary phases exist in both FZs, but only a
noted that the observation locations of HAZ are both just next to the FZ few undissolved particles remain in BM. Moreover, the area percentage
where suffered almost the most intense welding thermal cycles of the of these second phases can be achieved using an ImageJ software due to
HAZ. The result is shown in Fig. 3. pixel gray difference, that is 7.01%, 11.78%, 0.91% respectively.
As shown in Fig. 3a–e, the grains marked with different colors can be Besides, the EPMA was used to identify the type of these second
observed clearly due to their different orientations, and the high angle phases, and the result reveals that these phases in the three zones are
grain boundaries exceeding 15° misorientation are drawn by continu- respectively of one type, as shown in Table 3.
ous thin lines. Meanwhile, the grain size statistics achieved with the According to the atomic percent, the primary phases in FZ of TIG
HKL CHANNEL5 software are listed at the right of them. From Fig. 3a– joint are considered as a compound T phase composed of Al2Mg3Zn3
b, it can be seen that grains in FZ of the two joints are all dendritic and Al6CuMg4 which have the same crystal structure and are mutually
equiaxed grains. Moreover, according to the statistic result, the mean soluble, besides, the primary phases in FZ of laser joint are considered as
grain size in FZ of the two joints is 33.9 μm and 6.1 μm respectively, the T phase of Al2Mg3Zn3 dissolved in a few Cu [22,23]. The second
that is to say the laser welding creates a finer grain FZ, which is may phases in BM are considered as an unknown multi-component com-
mainly because the welding speed of laser is higher, the heat input is pound phase consisting of Zn, Mg, Cu, Mn, Er, and Fe. Besides, based
on the area percentage and composition of these phases, the percentage
Table 3 of main alloy elements of Zn, Mg consumed in them can be achieved.
The composition of second phases in the two FZs and BM. The result shows that there is about 19.6% Zn and 29.7% Mg existing in
Zn Mg Cu Mn Zr Er Fe Al the primary phases in FZ of TIG joint, and it is 45.6% Zn and 37.1% Mg
for laser joint, however, only about 2.3% Zn and 0.8% Mg exist in the
FZ in TIG joint (wt.%) 19.29 11.60 3.63 0.26 0 0 0.19 65.03
FZ in TIG joint (at.%) 9.09 14.69 1.76 0.15 0 0 0.10 74.21 phases of BM. The chemical composition of the two FZs is almost the
FZ in laser joint (wt.%) 28.05 8.88 4.85 0.29 0.11 1.35 0 56.48 same, as shown in Table 1. That is the more alloying elements consumed
FZ in laser joint (at.%) 14.40 12.26 2.56 0.18 0.04 0.27 0 70.28 in the primary phases that have little strengthening effect in FZ of laser
BM (wt.%) 20.18 2.42 9.24 6.13 0.04 12.94 3.15 45.90 joint, which weakens the driving force of natural aging during cooling
BM (at.%) 12.35 3.97 5.81 4.46 0.02 3.09 2.26 68.04
stage of welding and subsequent placing at room temperature.
884 L. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 92 (2016) 880–887
Fig. 5. Comparison between the measurement and simulation result of welding thermal cycles in HAZ of the TIG and laser joints: (a) peak temperature profile along HAZ; (b) welding
thermal cycles in different points of HAZ.
3.4. The welding thermal cycles in HAZ
For both the TIG welding and laser welding of aluminum alloys, the
welding thermal cycles change a lot in a narrow HAZ, so it is hardly to
achieve relatively intact welding thermal cycles using traditional ther-
mocouple measurement. At this point, the finite element simulation is
an effective method and its availability has been widely confirmed. In
this study, the simulation software named Visual–Weld was used to an-
alyze the welding thermal cycles in HAZ. The liquidus temperature of
this alloy (630 °C) is defined as the FL temperature. The comparison be-
tween measured and simulated thermal cycles is shown in Fig.5.
Obviously, the agreement between simulated and measured values
is satisfying. And from Fig. 5a, it can be seen that the peak temperature
of welding thermal cycles of laser joint drops more quickly. As a result, a
narrower HAZ is generated because the width of HAZ is mainly decided
by the peak temperature in Al–Zn–Mg–(Cu) alloy welding [24–27]. And
this can be attributed to the lower heat input of laser welding, see
Section 2. Moreover, it is obvious that the heating and cooling rate of
HAZ in laser joint is much higher compared with the TIG joint, as
shown in Fig. 5b.
3.5. Microhardness profiles
Fig. 6 exhibits the microhardness profiles of TIG and laser joints at the
1st and 90th day after welding. Due to the symmetry, microhardness
Fig. 6. Microhardness profiles of the joints at different time after welding. FZL: the fusion
zone of laser joint; HAZL: the heat affected zone of laser joint; DZL: the dissolution zone
of laser joint; OZL: the overaging zone of laser joint; FZT: the fusion zone of TIG joint;
HAZT: the heat affected zone of TIG joint; DZT: the dissolution zone of TIG joint; OZT: the
overaging zone of TIG joint; BM: base metal.
profiles begin with the center of FZ and end with BM. It can be seen
that the 4 mm HAZ width of laser joint is obviously smaller than the TIG
one with the value of 17 mm, which is well corresponding to the peak
temperature of welding thermal cycles. Moreover, the microhardness in
FZ and part of HAZ in the two joints increases distinctly within 90 days
after welding due to natural aging. And the distribution of the four hard-
ness profiles is almost the same, that is the minimum microhardness is
obtained in FZ, then the microhardness increases rapidly to a higher
level in the HAZ adjacent to FZ, and this region could be called the dis-
solution zone where the peak temperature of welding thermal cycle ex-
ceeds the fully dissolve temperature of η′ and η phases, the η′ phases
existing in BM dissolve during welding and the matrix is supersaturat-
ed, then GPI zones dissolve out in the cooling stage and subsequent
time; besides, in the other region of HAZ that could be named the
overaging zone, the peak temperature of welding thermal cycle exceeds
the transformation temperature of η′ to η phase that may also be named
softening temperature, the η phases begin to emerge and cause severe
softening [24–27].
Here, the difference of microhardnesses in FZ, HAZ of the two joints
is mainly concerned. From Fig. 6, the microhardness of FZ in TIG joint is
about 107.6 HV and 131.3 HV at the 1st day and 90th day, while the
value is 110.3 HV and 127.2 HV in laser joint FZ, it is worth noting that
the microhardness of FZ in laser joint is not higher than the other one
even its grain size is obviously finer, which may mainly be due to the
greater number of alloying elements consumed in the primary phases
(see Section 3.3), the driving force of natural aging is smaller and the
quantity of GPI zones dissolved out in the cooling stage of welding
and subsequent time is less. In a word, the microhardness of FZ in the
two joints is decided by both grain size and precipitates of GPI zones.
Additionally, the microhardness of the dissolution zone in laser joint
increases from 160.4 HV to 183.8 HV within 90 days, while the value is
125.2–162.3 HV in TIG joint, a valley microhardness is achieved in
overaging zone of the two joints, the value in TIG and laser joints is
112.1–128.1 HV and 147.9–169.5 HV respectively. In sum, the HAZ of
laser joint has higher microhardness compare with TIG joint. The differ-
ence of microhardnesses in HAZ of the two joints may be mainly con-
cerned with welding thermal cycles and the final precipitates
distribution. Consequently, the welding thermal cycles in the middle
of the dissolution zone and overaging zone of the two joints coupling
with the corresponding precipitate distribution and selected area elec-
tron diffraction (SAED) are exhibited in Fig. 7. It should be noted that
all the projections of SAED are Al b 100 N. The main strong diffraction
spots are from the Al matrix, the weak extra spots are from precipitates,
and they have been indexed according to correlational studies [28–31].
Firstly, the dissolution zone is analyzed, as shown in Fig. 7a, the peak
temperature is both about 440 °C, exceeding the fully dissolve temper-
ature of η′ and η phases [24], so this region can be considered to expe-
rience a heat treatment of solid solution following by cooling. The
biggest difference of the two thermal cycles is the heating and cooling
 L. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 92 (2016) 880–887 885

rate, the value of the TIG joint is about 114 °C/s and 19 °C/s, while it is
about 4000 °C/s and 432 °C/s for the laser joint. According to the studies
of other authors, the critical cooling rate after the solution treatment to
suppress the harmful precipitation reactions of Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloys
that have the similar composition with ours is about 100–300 °C/s,
and the microhardness is decreasing with the decreasing cooling rate
due to forming of more harmful precipitates that have undesirable
strengthening effect but consume numerous alloying elements [32–
35]. So the dissolution zone of laser joint can be thought to undergo
the perfect quenching without any harmful precipitates dissolving out
during the cooling stage of welding, and plenty of GPI zones with desir-
able strengthening effect can precipitate out during storing at room
temperature because of the high degree of supersaturation, as shown
in Fig. 7c. On the contrary, the cooling rate in the dissolution zone of
TIG joint is much less than the critical cooling rate, that means many
coarse harmful precipitates can dissolve out during the cooling stage
of welding, the observation result under TEM also supports this analysis,
as shown in Fig. 7b, the coarse harmful precipitates can be identified as
η phases due to SAED. In the end, the microhardness of the dissolution
zone in laser joint is obviously higher than the TIG one.
For the welding thermal cycles in the middle of the overaging zone
of the two joints, as shown in Fig. 7d, the peak temperatures are almost
305 °C that are apparently higher than the softening temperature
(about 210 °C), which means that the η′ phases that are deemed as
the most efficient strengthening phases existing in BM will coarsen
and transform into equilibrium η phases. And the more transformation
occurs, the severer softening will be induced [36–39]. As we know, the
phase transformation is a thermal diffusion process, and the transfor-
mations will be more sufficient with the more reaction time. From Fig
.7d, it is clear that the dwell time beyond the softening temperature of
the welding thermal cycle in the middle of the overaging zone of laser
joint is only about 0.53 s and it is much shorter than the TIG one with
the value of about 12.08 s. And the result is also very clear that the
overaging zone of TIG joint generates the severer coarsening and

Fig. 7. Comparison of the welding thermal cycles and the corresponding precipitates distribution: (a) the welding thermal cycles in the middle of dissolution zone; (b) precipitates
distribution and SAED in dissolution zone of TIG joint; (c) precipitates distribution and SAED in dissolution zone of laser joint; (d) the welding thermal cycles in the middle of
overaging zone; (e) precipitates distribution and SAED in overaging zone of TIG joint; (f) precipitates distribution and SAED in overaging zone of laser joint.
886 L. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 92 (2016) 880–887

Fig. 7 (continued).

Fig. 8. (a) The fracture appearance of TIG joint; (b) the fracture appearance of laser joint.
 L. Zhang et al. / Materials and Design 92 (2016) 880–887
transformation of precipitates, as shown in Fig .7e, f. Finally, the lower
microhardness is achieved in the overaging zone of TIG joint compare
with the laser one.
3.6. Tensile property and fracture appearance
The tensile tests at room temperature of the two joints and BM were
carried out after about 90 days of welding when the natural aging was
sufficient. Results show that the ultimate tensile strength of TIG joint,
laser joint and BM is about 436.2 MPa, 471.1 MPa and 675.9 MPa respec-
tively, that is, the strength coefficient of the TIG and laser joints after a
sufficient natural aging is about 64.5% and 69.7%. The elongation of
TIG and laser welded joints is 7.5% and 5.1% respectively. And all the
fractures of the two joints occurred within the FZ.
The fracture appearances with the magnification of 5000 of the two
joints were observed using SEM, as shown in Fig. 8. It is clear that many
dimples and tearing ridges exist in the two fracture appearances, which
indicates that the mechanism of the two fractures is mainly microvoid
coalescence fracture. However, the dimples in the fracture appearance
of TIG joint are obviously bigger and deeper. As we know, the initial
microvoids easily initiate in the interface of matrix and the second
phases in the microvoid coalescence fracture. The second phases in
the FZ of TIG joint are much less than the laser joint, see Section 3.3,
so the initial microvoids in FZ of TIG joint are less, the spaces between
these microvoids are larger, when the microvoids grow and coalesce
each other, the bigger and deeper dimples will be generated. According
to the elongation values, the bigger and deeper dimples in the TIG joint
indicate a better ductility.
4. Conclusions
(1) The heat input of TIG and laser welding is about 250 J/mm and
50 J/mm, the lower heat input of laser joint leads to the narrower
FZ and HAZ.
(2) The grains in both the FZ of TIG and laser joint are dendritic
equiaxed grains with the mean size of about 33.9 μm and
6.1 μm respectively. For another, the alloying elements con-
sumed in the primary T phases are more in FZ of laser joint.
These two factors are combined to result in almost the same mi-
crohardness of the two FZs.
(3) The grain morphology, grain size and degree of recrystallization
of the two HAZs are almost the same with BM.
(4) Due to the lower cooling rate of welding thermal cycles in disso-
lution zone of TIG joint, some coarse harmful precipitates can dis-
solve out, which leads to the lower microhardness; in the
overaging zone of TIG joint, the dwell time beyond the softening
temperature is longer, so the microhardness is also lower com-
pare with laser joint.
(5) The ultimate tensile strength of TIG and laser joints is about
436.2 MPa and 471.1 MPa, and the elongation of them is about
7.5% and 5.1% respectively.
Acknowledgments
The present work was supported by the National Key Basic Re-
search Program of China (National 973 Program) through Grant No.
2012CB619503.
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