TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of heat treatment and strain rate on the microstructure and mechanical properties of 6061 Al alloy
AU - Li, Ling
AU - Flores-Johnson, E. A.
AU - Shen, Luming
AU - Proust, Gwénaëlle
AU - Chen, Z.
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The work was supported in part by the Australian Research Council through Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals (CE0561574), Discovery Projects (DP130101291 and DP140100945) and LIEF Project (LE100100045), and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China through Grant No. 11232003. The authors acknowledge the facilities, and the scientific and technical assistance, of the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility at the Australian Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis at the University of Sydney.
Publisher Copyright:
© SAGE Publications.
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - In the present work, the effects of heat treatment and strain rate on mechanical behaviour and microstructure evolution of aluminium alloy 6061 have been investigated. The micro-crack initiation and crystallographic texture evolution are obtained from scanning electron microscope and electron back-scatter diffraction experiments. Quasi-static and high strain rate compression tests are conducted on AA6061 specimens that underwent two different heat treatments: the as-received material with the original T6 heat treatment and the heat treated and artificially aged specimens. For the high strain rate compression (∼2000 and ∼4000 s-1) tests, the split Hopkinson pressure bar apparatus is used. It is observed that the additional heat treatment has significantly reduced the yield strength of the material. Furthermore, electron back-scatter diffraction results show that the higher the applied strain rate is, the less significant change will happen to the texture. Scanning electron microscope images show that, for both T6 and HT specimens, the number and size of micro-cracks in the dynamic compressed specimens are smaller than in the quasi-static deformed specimen. Therefore, the strain rate is considered to be the dominant factor in forming micro-cracks.
AB - In the present work, the effects of heat treatment and strain rate on mechanical behaviour and microstructure evolution of aluminium alloy 6061 have been investigated. The micro-crack initiation and crystallographic texture evolution are obtained from scanning electron microscope and electron back-scatter diffraction experiments. Quasi-static and high strain rate compression tests are conducted on AA6061 specimens that underwent two different heat treatments: the as-received material with the original T6 heat treatment and the heat treated and artificially aged specimens. For the high strain rate compression (∼2000 and ∼4000 s-1) tests, the split Hopkinson pressure bar apparatus is used. It is observed that the additional heat treatment has significantly reduced the yield strength of the material. Furthermore, electron back-scatter diffraction results show that the higher the applied strain rate is, the less significant change will happen to the texture. Scanning electron microscope images show that, for both T6 and HT specimens, the number and size of micro-cracks in the dynamic compressed specimens are smaller than in the quasi-static deformed specimen. Therefore, the strain rate is considered to be the dominant factor in forming micro-cracks.
KW - Aluminium alloy 6061
KW - electron back-scatter diffraction
KW - high strain rate testing
KW - microstructure
KW - split Hopkinson pressure bar
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84949635239&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1056789515569088
DO - 10.1177/1056789515569088
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84949635239
SN - 1056-7895
VL - 25
SP - 26
EP - 41
JO - International Journal of Damage Mechanics
JF - International Journal of Damage Mechanics
IS - 1
ER -