Evolution of microstructure and mechanical characteristics of friction stir welded ultrafine-grained aluminum alloy 6082

Bulk production of ultrafine-grained material is in great demand presently. Ultrafine-grained material can be synthesized using accumulative roll bonding, which is a prominent severe plastic deformation technique to develop such materials in bulk. There are further challenges in the fabrication of ultrafine-grained material. Friction stir welding is a potential technique to join the ultrafine-grained material while maintaining its mechanical and microstructural characteristics stability as no fusion is required. The present research work demonstrates the microstructural and mechanical characteristics of various welding zone after friction stir welding of ultrafine-grained aluminum alloy 6082. The microstructural features were examined using optical microscopy and the electron back-scattered diffraction technique. The variation in mechanical characteristics was observed using tensile and microhardness tests. The fractography of tensile specimens was studied to identify the mode of failure. The present study demonstrates the viability of friction stir welding to join ultrafine-grained aluminum alloy 6082 developed by accumulative roll bonding. The ultrafine grain size of 0.52 μm was achieved after four accumulative roll bonding cycles. The microhardness of accumulative roll bonding processed samples and the tensile strength of the weld joint were increased about two times and 1.6 times respectively compared to the annealed sample.     

Tailoring materials properties of UFG aluminium alloys by accumulative roll bonded sandwich-like sheets

Accumulative roll bonding (ARB) as a method of severe plastic deformation is a well-established process to produce ultrafine-grained (UFG) sheet materials with extraordinary mechanical properties. In this work ARB is applied to combine different sheet materials in order to tailor the materials properties by producing sandwich-like structures. The high strength aluminium alloy AA5754, after 4 ARB cycles (N4), is used as a core material. To achieve high corrosion resistance and good visual properties, it is cladded with commercially pure aluminium AA1050A (N4) at room temperature and alternatively with AA6014 (N4) at 230 °C. All materials are UFG and satisfactory bonding between the different layers of aluminium alloys is achieved. Nanoindentation measurements reveal that there is a sharp transition in hardness at the interface. The yield and tensile strength of the core material are fully retained in the case of the AA6014/AA5754 sandwich. The strength of the AA1050A/AA5754 sandwich is slightly lower compared to the core material but still twice as high as the clad material. The serrated yielding effect which is strongly visible in tensile tests on the pure AA5754 alloy completely disappears in the sandwich sheets, which means the surface quality is strongly enhanced.     

Forming and fracture limits of aluminium alloy

Abstract

Forming and fracture limits of an AA 3104-H19 aluminium alloy sheet were studied by hydraulic bulging and Marciniak type deep drawing and tensile tests. The alloy appeared to be highly anisotropic, exhibiting distinctly different fracture patterns in the rolling and transverse directions. The preferred fracture direction was transverse to the rolling direction. In the tensile test, samples loaded in the rolling direction failed transverse to the rolling direction, but in the transverse direction, the fracture was inclined at ～55° to the tensile axis. In some cases, two such competing fractures in the characteristic directions could be observed. Scanning electron microscopy studies revealed a typical ductile fracture pattern. The fracture occurred by shearing in the through thickness direction, and typical alternating shear lips in a direction inclined at ～45° to the through thickness direction could be observed. Forming limit diagrams for both rolling and transverse directions were determined from the experiments. The measured limit strains in uniaxial tension were predicted well by the modified Rice–Tracey theory, but in equibiaxial tension, the theory overestimated the fracture limit strains.     

Rolling strain effects on the interlaminar properties of roll bonded copper/aluminium metal laminates

Metal laminates of copper/aluminium were prepared by roll bonding at 430°C with various rolling strains. The effect of the rolling strain on the interface development and bond strength of the laminates was examined. It was found that as the rolling strain increased the bond strength of the laminates was generally enhanced in both as-rolled and sintered conditions. Critical post-rolling sintering conditions were found to exist for achieving optimum bond strengths of the laminates. It is evident that the development of optimum strength for the laminates is related to the formation of various intermetallic phases at the interface which is in turn determined by the diffusion activity of the metallic elements in the area. The greatest strength enhancement was generally observed to develop in the 60% rolled samples, suggesting that rolling strain of the roll bonding process may impose great influence on diffusion of the metallic elements. A higher copper content, without significant Kirkendall void formation, was found to build up in the interface area of the material, leading to development of strong interfacial phases. It is believed that a higher rolling strain of the roll bonding process has provided a greater area of physical contact between the bonded metals and imposed diffusion enhancement of the metallic elements across the interface.     

Role of second phase particles on microstructure and texture evolution of ARB processed aluminium sheets

Abstract

The accumulative roll bonding (ARB) process was carried out on a high purity alloy (AA1100) and a particle containing aluminium alloy (AA3003) for up to eight cycles. The electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) method was utilised to investigate the microstructural and microtextural evolution in ARB processed sheets. The results indicate that the lack of second phase particles in pure aluminium hinders grain refinement and leads to the formation of unrefined bands, which results in the increase of the overall texture intensity and the development of a strong texture. A submicrometre grain structure in this alloy develops at the final stages of the process. It was also found that the presence of second phase particles in AA3003 alloy prevents the development of such unrefined bands and improves grain refinement during the ARB process, which results in a more homogenous microstructure of ultrafine grains.     

Formation of pinch marks on pack rolled aluminium foil

The matte side of the pack rolled aluminium foils was found to contain frequent pinch marks distributed over the surface randomly with no periodicity along the rolling direction. They were judged to be material-related since only an intermittent fraction of the aluminium coils pack rolled under exactly the same process conditions has suffered this problem. Metallographic investigation of pack rolled foil sections has shown these pinch marks to be invariably associated with eutectic colonies across the section of either one of the packed webs. These lamellar eutectic colonies form due to centreline segregation typical of the twin roll casting process and have apparently survived the homogenization treatment and the downstream processing cycle. They are harder than the solid solution aluminium matrix and resist plastic deformation during cold rolling. They make an impression on the surfaces of both webs while the stacked webs pass through the roll gap. The polishing effect thus produced is retained on the inner matte surfaces that are not in contact with the work rolls producing bright spots.     

Fabrication of aluminium matrix composites reinforced by submicrometre and nanosize Al2O3 via accumulative roll bonding

Abstract

Aluminium matrix composites reinforced with submicrometre and nanosize Al₂O₃ particles were successfully manufactured in the form of sheets through eight cycles of accumulative roll bonding process. The mechanical properties of the produced composite are compared with accumulative roll bonded commercially pure aluminium. It is shown that only 1 vol.-% of submicrometre or nanosize alumina particles as reinforcement in the structure can significantly improve the yield and ultimate tensile strengths. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that particles have a random and uniform distribution in the matrix especially in the less volume fraction of alumina particles, and strong mechanical bonding occurs at the interface of the particle matrix. According to the results of the tensile tests, it is observed that with less alumina content, the composite reinforced by nanosize particles has higher strength than that by submicrometre size particles. However, more reinforcement up to 3 vol.-% of submicrometre particles, as a result of including fewer microstructural defects, leads to better mechanical properties in comparison to the nanoparticle composite.     

Computer modelling of microstructure during hot flat rolling of aluminium

Abstract

Prediction of the evolution of grain size in hot rolling of Al–5Mg alloy (AA 5056) is described in this paper. Published equations that relate microstructure to processing conditions in aluminium are incorporated into a thermomechanical model of hot rolling. Detailed modelling of the distribution of temperature, strain, and strain rate (Zener–Hollomon parameter) allows prediction of through thickness variation in the microstructure. The model described in this paper was developed to examine the effects of rolling process parameters (roll speed, reduction, strip entry temperature, and interpass time) on the extent of recrystallisation and grain size in the resulting microstructure.

MST/1439     

累积叠轧技术研究进展

大塑性变形工艺是制备超细晶材料的主要成形技术.其中,累积叠轧(ARB)因工序简单、成本低,对模具要求低,可连续生产大尺寸的细晶板材,而获得广泛应用.从累积叠轧后材料的组织特性、力学性能以及强化机制和界面结合机制方面梳理国内外累积叠轧工艺的研究现状.提高累积叠轧材料的塑性极其重要.制备高强度、高塑性ARB复合材料将成为后续研究热点.     

Influence of upscaling accumulative roll bonding on the homogeneity and mechanical properties of AA1050A

Accumulative roll bonding (ARB), as a method for production of ultrafine grained materials, is frequently supposed to be easily transferable to established industrial production lines. In literature, however, common sheet dimensions used for ARB in a laboratory scale are between 20 and 100 mm in width. In order to quantify the potential of upscaling the ARB process to a technological relevant level, sheets of AA1050A with an initial sheet width of 100–450 mm were accumulative roll bonded up to 8 cycles. In this regard, three different rolling mills of distinct dimensions were used for processing of the sheet material. The influence of process parameters and the reproducibility of the process, in terms of mechanical properties and homogeneity of the sheets, were studied by means of mechanical and microstructural characterization. Both appear to be largely independent on the sheet size and the rolling mill utilized for production. Only small deviations after the first cycles could be detected, vanishing in subsequent cycles due to the features of microstructural evolution. The finally obtained results indicate a high potential for industrial application of ARB and illustrate the possibility to upscale the process to a level necessary for that purpose.     

Effect of cooling rate in overageing and other thermomechanical process parameters on grain refinement in an AA7475 aluminium alloy

Fine-grained AA7475 aluminium alloy sheets were produced in this study by a thermomechanical treatment involving solution anneal, overageing, rolling and recrystallization steps. It has been found that the cooling rate after the intermediate overageing treatment should be fast to obtain the finest grain size. The fast cooling rate ensured the presence of relatively large particles of MgZn₂ and some supersaturation prior to cold rolling. Generally, the final grain structure was heterogeneous, with bands of fine grains lying parallel to the rolling direction. In material rapidly cooled after overageing, bands of fine grains were also observed in the transverse direction and these bands were associated with shear bands formed during rolling. The fine-grained AA7475 alloy sheets with an average grain size of about 9 m showed large tensile elongations of about 800% when deformed at 516 °C and with an initial strain rate of 5×10^–4s^–1.     

Influence of pre-compression on the ductility of AA6xxx aluminium alloys

Reversed loading experiments were conducted to study the influence of pre-compression on the ductility of three aluminium alloys. Diabolo-shaped specimens were machined from extruded profiles along the transverse direction, and heat treated to peak strength (T6 temper). The specimens were subjected to five different levels of pre-compression (0, 10, 20, 30, 40%), i.e., the specimens were first compressed to a prescribed strain and then pulled to fracture in tension. Using a laser-based measuring system, the minimum diameter in the extrusion direction and thickness direction were continuously measured during the tests until fracture. The three aluminium alloys AA6060, AA6082.25 and AA6082.50 had different grain structure and texture. The AA6060 and AA6082.50 alloys had recrystallized grain structure with equi-axed grains and large elongated grains, respectively. The AA6082.25 alloy had a non-recrystallized, fibrous grain structure. It was found that pre-compression has a marked influence on the ductility of the aluminium alloys, which depends on the microstructure and strength of the alloy. Using the compressed configuration as the reference configuration, the relative failure strain could be calculated. For the AA6060 alloy, the relative failure strain increased for increasing pre-compression, and was approximately doubled for 40% pre-compression compared to pure tension. For the AA6082.25 alloy, a slight increase in the relative failure strain was observed for increasing pre-compression, while for the AA6082.50 alloy the relative failure strain was low and approximately constant for different levels of pre-compression.     

Al–Pb–Si–In bearing alloy

Abstract

A bearing alloy consisting of Al–18·6Pb–8·8Si–1·4In has been produced by isostatically compacting mixed atomised alloy powders of Al–11Si and Pb–7In (all wt-%), followed by cold extrusion and rolling, with intermediate annealing treatments. The alloy was subjected to hardness tests and tensile tests and its tribological properties were evaluated using a miniature pin-on-disc machine. The properties of the alloy were found to compare favourably with those of other aluminium based bearing alloys. The alloy was roll bonded to a steel backer to which an intermediate layer of aluminium had been roll bonded. It is suggested that the alloy warrants further evaluation with a view to its possible commercial development.

MST/592     

Transient liquid phase bonding of AA 6082 aluminium alloy

Transient liquid phase bonding (TLP) on AA 6082 samples were performed under ambient non‐vacuum conditions, which was possible by a suitable pre‐treatment. This treatment involves a zincate treatment followed by copper plating, which is a common industrial process and can be performed in large batches. This treatment allows to remove the natural aluminium oxide layer and to protect the aluminium surface from excessive oxidation. Different bonding conditions were investigated and showed the feasibility of the transient liquid phase bonding process for AA 6082. Energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDX) investigations showed that the isothermal solidification is already terminated after 5 min. The microstructure of the bonding zone showed no metallurgical discontinuity such as eutectic microstructure or intermetallic Al–Cu phases. However the microstructure shows numerous voids with a size of approximately 30 µm in the bonding zone. It is assumed that these voids were formed during the bonding process due to solidification shrinkage and the presence of interfacial oxide layers. The transient liquid phase bonded samples that were mechanically tested under tensile load showed an average strength of approximately 270 MPa, the minimum yield strength required for the base material according to EN 754‐2 is 255 MPa. Due to the notch effect of the voids, the tensile sample failed under forced fracture and showed no plastic deformation.     

Mechanical and fracture properties of aluminium cylinders manufactured by orbital friction stir welding

Butt welding of AA6063 aluminium cylindrical shells was performed using the orbital friction stir welding (FSW) method. Tool rotation speed and orbital speed (i.e., traverse speed of rotating cylinder during welding) were considered as variable, and the strength and the mechanical properties including tensile strength, microhardness, mode I fracture energy and mode I crack growth behaviour of manufactured cylinders were investigated experimentally. A novel and subsized test specimen was designed and manufactured for fracture testing of specimens extracted from both base metal and weld zone region of cylinders. The initial precrack was introduced along (i) the tool penetration through the pipe thickness (i.e., T‐direction) and (ii) along the tool travelling direction (i.e., L‐direction). It was found that the crack growth resistance and fracture energy values of FSW samples are greater than the corresponding values of base aluminium material along both “L”‐ and “T”‐directions. Also, the fracture resistance value in T‐direction was higher than the L‐direction for the whole tested FSW samples with different welding speeds.     

Cold roll bonding bond strengths: review

Abstract

Cold roll bonding (CRB), a well established and widely used manufacturing process, is a solid state bonding process to join similar and dissimilar metals. The present work offers a review of the CRB process and effective parameters on bond strength of cold roll bonded materials. The effects of different amounts of reduction in thickness, annealing treatment, initial thickness, rolling speed, rolling direction, friction coefficient and presence of particles between strips on bond strength were evaluated. It was found that higher reduction in thickness and friction coefficient, lower initial thickness, rolling speed and amount of particles were the important factors involved in improving bond strength. In addition, annealing treatment before and/or after the CRB process increased bond strength, while the effect of prerolling annealing was more pronounced. Finally, it has been indicated that bond strength of cold roll bonded fcc materials is stronger than that of the bcc and hcp materials.     

A comparison of fatigue crack growth performance of two aerospace grade aluminium alloys reinforced with bonded crack retarders

To improve the fail‐safety performance of integral metallic structures, the bonded crack retarder concept has been developed in recent years. This paper presents an experimental investigation on the effectiveness of bonded crack retarder on fatigue crack growth life in two aerospace aluminium alloys: 2624‐T351 and 7085‐T7651. M(T) specimens bonded with a pair of straps made of GLARE fibre‐metal laminate were tested under the constant amplitude load. Although the bonded crack retarders increased the crack growth life in both alloys, the magnitude of life improvement is very different between them. Compared to unreinforced specimens, application of crack retarders has resulted in 90% increase in fatigue life in AA7085, but only 27% increase in AA2624. The significant difference in fatigue life improvement is owing to the material's intrinsic fatigue crack growth rate property, ie, the Paris law constants C and n. Value of n for AA7085 is 1.8 times higher than that for AA2624. Therefore, AA7085 is much more sensitive to reductions in the effective stress intensity factor brought by the crack retarders, hence better life improvement.     

Accumulative roll bonding of aluminum alloys 2219/5086 laminates: Microstructural evolution and tensile properties

The present study describes the course of microstructure evolution during accumulative roll bonding (ARB) of dissimilar aluminum alloys AA2219 and AA5086. The two alloys were sandwiched as alternate layers and rolled at 300 °C up to 8 passes with 50% height reduction per pass. A strong bonding between successive layers accompanied by substantial grain refinement (∼200–300 nm) is achieved after 8 passes of ARB. The processing schedule has successfully maintained the iso-strain condition up to 6 cycles between the two alloys. Afterwards, the fracture and fragmentation of AA5086 layers dominate the microstructure evolution. Mechanical properties of the 8 pas ARB processed material were evaluated in comparison to the two starting alloy sheets via room temperature tensile tests along the rolling direction. The strength of the 8 pass ARB processed material lies between that of the two starting alloys while the ductility decreases after ARB than that of the two constituent starting alloys. These differences in mechanical behavior have been attributed to the microstructural aspects of the individual layer and the fragmentation process.     

Microstructure and texture evolution during accumulative roll bonding of aluminium alloys AA2219/AA5086 composite laminates

Accumulative roll bonding of two aluminium alloys, AA2219 and AA5086 was carried out up to 8 passes. During the course of ARB, the deformation inhomogeneity between the two alloy layers results in interfacial instability after the 4th pass, necking of the AA5086 layers after the 6th pass and fracture along the necked regions after the 7th and 8th pass. The EBSD analysis shows deformation bands along the interfaces after 8 passes of ARB. The ARB-processed materials predominantly show characteristic deformation texture components. The weak texture after the 2nd pass results from the combination of a weakly-textured starting AA2219 layer and a strongly-textured starting AA5086 layer. A strong deformation texture forms due to the high imposed strain after a higher number of ARB passes. Subgrain formation and related shear banding induces copper/S components in the case of the small elongated grains, while planar slip leads to the formation of brass component in the large elongated grains.     

Corrosion behaviour of cold‐rolled aluminium AA8015‐alloy in natural seawater at 0.18 μm surface roughness

Aluminium is one of the most produced and used metals globally, second to ferrous metals. Its good corrosion resistance is one of the reasons for its heavy usage in typical applications, such as in marine applications. Electrochemical corrosion study of cold‐rolled aluminium AA8015‐alloy at 0.18 μm surface roughness in natural seawater was explored. The aluminium AA8015‐alloy utilized in this study was cold rolled in a reversible Achenbach cold rolling mill in four pass schedules to a thickness gauge of 1.2 mm. A surface roughness of 0.18 μm with three cold mounted samples was achieved on an automated grinding/polishing machine using 320 grit, 800 grit, and 1200 grit SiC paper. Electrochemical corrosion experiments were conducted on the samples in natural seawater using a computer‐controlled potentiostat in an open polarization cell set‐up at room temperature. The corrosion behaviour on surface morphologies of the samples was observed by high mega pixel camera and scanning electron microscope. Findings reveal asymmetric polarization curves for all the samples and energy dispersive X‐ray spectrometry elemental analysis shows the existence of insoluble substrate complexes formed on the surfaces. Consequently, the scanning electron microscope analysis confirms localised corrosion in the mode of pitting.