A Review of Heat-Resistant Al Alloys: Strengthening Strategies and Processing Technologies

Abstract

The rapid advancement of aerospace and transportation technologies toward weight reduction and harsh thermal environments has imposed a stringent demand for Al alloys that can sustain excellent performance at 200–400 °C. Heat-resistant Al alloys have thus garnered strategic significance as a premier class of lightweight structural materials for elevated-temperature applications. This review critically assesses the current state of heat-resistant Al alloys from the perspectives of strengthening strategies and processing technologies. Three representative strengthening strategies have been summarized, including multi-element microalloying, incorporation of nanoparticles, and formation of nano-eutectic skeleton. Meanwhile, a systematic comparative analysis has been conducted on microstructural regulations and mechanical properties of alloys manufactured by permanent mold casting (PMC), powder metallurgy (PM), and laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), with particular emphasis on the processing-structure-property correlations unique to each route. On this basis, the principal technical bottlenecks currently constraining the further advancement of high-performance heat-resistant Al alloys have been identified and critically discussed, thereby outlining prospective research directions to overcome these limitations.

Keywords

Heat-resistant Al alloy / Strengthening strategy / Processing technology / Microstructural regulation / Mechanical property

Author Contributions

Y.-N.P.: Investigation, Data curation, Writing-Original Draft; H.-L.J.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data Curation, Validation, Visualization, Supervision, Writing-Original Draft; T.-Y.L.: Investigation, Visualization; J.-W.S.: Investigation, Visualization; H.W.: Investigation, Visualization; M.Z.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Writing-Original Draft.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

No new data were generated in this study. All information supporting the findings of this review is available within the review.

Funding

This work was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program (No. 2024YFE0108900), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52334010 and 52001133), Yunnan Fundamental Research Projects (No. 202601BC070008) and Key Research and Development Project of Linyi City (No. 2025PT008).

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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