Scale-Dependent Structure–Property Correlations of Precipitation-Hardened Aluminum Alloys: A Review

Precipitate-hardened aluminum (Al) alloys are being actively developed to further improve their fundamental mechanical properties, namely Young’s modulus (Y_m), and strains for both existing and future applications. Their development critically depends upon figuring out the structure–property correlations (SPCs) between the microstructure and the mechanical properties. Various techniques can be used to establish SPCs between the determined microstructure and the observed mechanical properties of the alloys. In this paper, we review techniques that allow the measuring of the alloy properties under both “direct” and “in-direct” categories. In the former, the properties are measured by applying loads, while for the latter case, they are measured without applying loads. However, for both categories, the regions of the determined structure are directly related to the same regions where the properties are measured. It was found that the validity of the established SPCs depends on the length scales, and that often a combination of techniques is required to complete the task.