The hot deformation behavior of 7A55 aluminum alloy was investigated at the temperature ranging from 300 ℃ to 450 ℃ and strain rate ranging from 0.01 s-1 to 1 s-1 on a Gleeble-3500 simulator. Processing maps were established in order to apprehend the kinetics of hot deformation and the rate controlling mechanism was interpreted by the kinetic rate analysis obeying power-law relation. The results indicated that one significant domain representing dynamic recrystallization （DRX） existed on the processing maps and lying in 410-450 ＆#176;C and 0.05-1 s-1. The conclusions of kinetic analysis correlated well with those obtained from processing maps. The apparent activation energy values calculated in the dynamic recrystallization （DRX） domain and the stability regions except dynamic recrystallization （DRX） domain were 91.2 kJ/mol and 128.8 kJ/mol, respectively, which suggested that grain boundary self-diffusion and cross-slip were the rate controlling mechanisms.
The retrogression kinetics for grain boundary precipitate （GBP） of 7A55 aluminum alloy was investigated by transmission electron microscopy （TEM） observation. The results reveal that the coarsening behavior of GBP obeys “LSW” theory, namely, the cube of GBP average size has a linear dependence relation to retrogression time, and the coarsening rate accelerates at the elevated retrogression temperature. The GBP coarsening activation energy Qo of （115.2±1.3） kJ/mol is obtained subsequently. Taking the retrogression treatment schedule of 190℃, 45 min derived from AA7055 thin plate as reference, the non-isothermal retrogression model for GBP coarsening behavior is established based on “LSW”theory and “iso-kinetics” solution, which includes an Arrhenius form equation. After that, the average size of GBP r（t） is predicted successfully at any non-isothermal process T（t） when the initial size of GBP r0 is given. Finally, the universal characterization method for the microstructure homogeneity along the thickness direction of TA55 aluminum alloy thick plate is also set up.
