Materials Science and Engineering A 410411 (2005) 426429

Mechanical properties of aluminium alloys processed by SPD: Comparison of different alloy systems and possible product areas
Hans J. Roven a, , Hakon Nesboe a , Jens C. Werenskiold a , Tanja Seibert b
a b

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Materials Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway Friedrich-Alexander-Universit t Erlangen-N rnberg, Institut f r Werkstoffwissenschaften, D-91058 Erlangen, Germany a u u Received in revised form 4 May 2005

Abstract The mechanical properties of a wide range of aluminium alloys are compared after being subjected to severe plastic deformation (SPD), i.e. equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). Alloys involved are AlMg, AlMn, AlMgSi, and AlMgSc. The effect of SPD on mechanical properties is mostly benecial with age-hardenable alloys, whereas non-age-hardenable alloys tend to be relatively less reacting to SPD as compared to conventional processing. Finally, some challenges in regard to commercialization will be discussed briey. 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Aluminium alloys; SPD; Ultrane grain; Mechanical properties

1. Introduction In recent years, attention has been drawn to the processing of submicron grained materials, e.g. [15]. A signicant amount of works have been published in regard to the effect of SPD on mechanical properties of aluminium alloys, i.e. both non-agehardenable [68] and age-hardenable [9,10] alloy systems. The highest strength in ultrane grained (UFG) aluminium so far is reported for a standard AlZnMg alloy, i.e. 650 and 720 MPa tensile yield and ultimate strength, respectively [11]. Generally, strength increase in combination with a reduction in ductility is typically observed after ECAP. However, recent work has shown that high strength and ductility combinations are achievable in age-hardening aluminium alloys processed in the solution heat treated condition followed by post-ECAP aging at 100 C [9,12]. Earlier work has shown that grain boundary sliding (GBS) can introduce super plasticity [13]. Mechanisms for good combinations of high strength and ductility have been suggested, e.g. due to bimodal grain size distributions [14] and re-arrangement (recovery) of dislocation structures [13]. In spite of the promising mechanical properties reported in the literature, conservatism and skepticism seem to domi

nate traditional industry. However, recent developments indicate increasing commercial interests [15]. 2. Experimental procedures Seven different aluminium alloys were subjected to ECAP by route A, i.e. see Table 1. The die had a channel intersection angle = 90 and arc of curvature [16] = 20.6 and workpiece dimensions were 19.5 mm 19.5 mm 100 mm. The age-hardenable AlMgSi(Cu) alloys were received as cast billets, homogenized according to industrial standards, solid solution heat treated and kept in liquid nitrogen until ECAP and between passes (CCS: cryogenically cooled specimens). Nonage-hardenable alloys AlMn (3103) and AlMg (5182) were received in the hot-rolled and homogenized condition and subjected to ECAP at room temperature (RT), 5182 with inter-pass annealing (IA, 200 C/2 h). The experimental AlMgSc alloy was received in homogenized and hot extruded condition and was subjected to ECAP at RT. Vickers hardness tests were performed in the x-plane [17] and at tensile specimens (25 mm gauge length, 10 mm width and 2 mm thickness) were machined from the y-plane [17] and tested at nominal strain rate 0.01 s1 . One sample was tested for each condition, i.e. additional testing showed typical maximum variations 2 MPa. Post-ECAP articial aging treatments were conducted at temperatures ranging from 90 to 200 C.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +47 73594966; fax: +47 73550203. E-mail address: hans.j.roven@material.ntnu.no (H.J. Roven).

0921-5093/$ see front matter 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.msea.2005.08.112

H.J. Roven et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 410411 (2005) 426429 Table 1 Chemical compositions (wt.%) of investigated materials Alloy system AlMn AlMg AlMgScb AlMgSi AlMgSi AlMgSi AlMgSiCuc
a b c

427

Alloy 3103 5182 5xSc 6060 6005 6082 6xxx

Fe 0.60 0.30 0.20 0.19 0.20 0.20 0.20

Si 0.60 0.80 1.00 0.96

Mg 4.00 5.10 0.74 0.56 0.64 0.70

Mn 1.10 0.35 0.40 0.03 0.47 0.52 0.60

Cu 0.20

Cr 0.13 0.20

Zr 0.10

Sc 0.20

Al Bal. Bal. Bal. Bal. Bal. Bal. Bal.

ECAP temperaturea RT RT + IA RT CCS CCS CCS CCS

RT: room temperature, IA: interpass annealing 220 C for 2 h, CCS: cryogenically cooled specimens. Alloy AlMgSc is similar to the AlMg. AlMgSiCu is similar to alloy 6082.

3. Results 3.1. Strength development during ECA pressing All investigated alloys exhibit a signicant hardness increase after the rst ECAP pass. Beyond one pass the hardness increase is less pronounced. Among the non-age-hardenable alloys, the Sc-containing alloy (5xSc) achieves the highest hardness, whereas the AlMg alloy (inter-pass annealed) softens beyond six passes. For the age-hardenable alloys highest hardness values are obtained in the experimental alloy (6xxx) subjected to cryogenic cooling between passes. 3.2. Comparison SPD versus conventional processing Firstly, it is obvious from the present comparison to conventional processing that SPD by ECAP for non-age-hardenable alloys is not very promising with regard to yield stress and tensile strength, as these alloys only exhibit minor improvements (Table 2). Secondly, age-hardenable AlMgSi alloys have a substantial increase in strength after SPD compared to conventional processing, i.e. ranging 1836% and 1628% for yield stress and tensile strength, respectively. Another observation is that the increase in tensile strength is less than for the yield stress, and this trend is more pronounced the lower the alloying contents.

3.3. Articial aging of SPD materials Aging at temperatures 90130 C increases the ductility whereas strength shows a minor reduction (Fig. 1a). Conventional articial aging at 175 C shows rapid softening in the ECA pressed AlMgSi alloy (Fig. 1b), whereas aged at 110 C a classical age hardening behavior is seen (Fig. 1b). The hardness increase due to age hardening is low in materials subjected to ECAPeven at low aging temperatures (Fig. 1b). As expected, age hardening kinetics increases with increasing aging temperature and the number of ECAP passes. 4. Discussion 4.1. Discussion of results A comparison of different alloys in regard to their response to SPD has not been studied to any great detail in the past, although an attempt based on literature data has been reported by Markushev and Murashkin [19]. This work claims that: (a) SPD of non-age-hardenable alloys does not result in noticeable improvement in strength compared to standard methods of work hardening, (b) SPD is efcient for improving strength in lowalloy age-hardenable alloys, but does not increase the strength in higher-alloyed age-hardenable alloys. The present tensile tests results (Table 2) clearly indicate that the strength increase as compared to conventional processing in non-age-hardenable alloys is very limited, in agreement to [19]. In contrast, age-

Fig. 1. (a) Effect of aging temperature on strength and ductility in AlMgSi alloy (6082) after N = 6 passes and subsequently aged to maximum hardness (143 HV) and (b) hardness evolution at 110 and 175 C after N = 0 and 6 passes.

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Table 2 Mechanical properties after ECAP (N = number of passes) and comparison to conventionally processed materials (conv.) Alloy 3103 5182 5xScc 6xxx 6082 6060 6005 Processinga Conv. H18 ECAP, N = 6 Conv. H19 ECAP, N = 3 ECAP, N = 1 Cast T6 ECAP, N = 3d Conv. T6 ECAP, N = 6d Conv. T6 ECAP, N = 9d Conv. T6 ECAP, N = 7d 110 C/16 h 90 C/192 h 110 C/72 h 110 C/72 h Aging conditions Rp0.2 (MPa) 230 250 395 430 417 330 410 370 437 230 310 280 380 UTS (MPa) 250 270 420 470 472 360 426 385 447 250 320 310 395 (%)b 6 8 7 7 18 10 17 7 14 9 12 Increase in Rp0.2 (UTS) +9% (8%) +9% (12%) +6% (12%) +24% (8%)e +18% (16%) +35% (28%) +36% (27%)

Conventional data are taken from [18]. a ECAP using route A, N = number of passes. 1 for each pass. b Total fracture elongation. c Alloy with Sc is compared to the alloy 5182 (which is similar in composition), the latter in a H19 condition. d ECAP in room temperature die and specimens cooled to 196 C before and between passes. e Increase measured against cast material.

hardenable alloys are seen to be the most responding to SPD in the present work. Strength increase as compared to conventional processing can reach up to 40%, and at the same time ductility can be recovered and enters promising levels when aged at low temperatures, in agreement to Kim et al. [9] and Kim et al. [12]. Hence, the age-hardenable alloys benet strongly from SPD and demonstrate highest strengthening potential, both in the present work (Table 2) and in the literature [11]. In the present work, the increase rate in yield stress versus alloying contents is highest below 2 wt.%, where the age-hardenable alloys are located (Fig. 2a). Although alloying range is limited, the strength of agehardenable alloys seems proportional to the alloying content, and non-age-hardenable alloys fall below a prediction line based on the former alloy type (Fig. 2b). A similar consideration of ductility against alloying content indicates a maximum around 2 wt.% when aged or annealed at around 100 C after ECAP, suggesting that precipitation and a mild recovery together with SPD

gives optimum strength combined with reasonable ductility in the age-hardenable alloys. 4.2. Commercialization and products The present investigation on aluminium alloys indicates that SPD can give rise to signicantly improved mechanical properties in age-hardenable alloys. Three main challenges need to be overcome in order to be cost competitive, i.e. development of processes for ultra-high strains, robust up-scaled SPD forming equipment and processes which are continuous and have multiple shape possibilities. Also, further investigations in combination with special alloy design should address the temperature stability of SPD alloys and post-processing possibilities. However, the potentials for non-age-hardenable alloys in regard to mechanical properties are less since cost-effective commercial processes such as cold-rolling already benets from highly

Fig. 2. Yield strength vs. amount of alloying elements. R2 = 1.0 indicates 100% match. (a) As-pressed condition, logarithmic curve tting based on all alloys and (b) linear curve tting based only on age-hardenable alloys (after aging).

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deformed microstructures in solute-containing alloys. On the other hand, these alloys might have superior post-SPD forming characteristics. In general, aluminium alloys have large potential for super plastic forming [13], e.g. can be cost-effective and even superior todays commercialized technology. Commercialization through todays strong focus on nanotechnology is therefore likely [15]. 5. Conclusion The present observations may indicate that the effect of SPD on mechanical properties is mostly benecial for age-hardenable alloys, whereas non-age-hardenable alloys tend to be relatively less reacting to SPD as compared to conventional processing. However, more work needs to explore the post-SPD processing opportunities, especially for the non-age-hardenable alloys. A widespread commercialization of SPD aluminium technology is likely. Acknowledgements The study was supported by the Norwegian Research Council (No. 162291/i40), Hydro Aluminium AS, Nammo AS and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS). References
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