Prediction of the flow stress of Al6061 at hot deformation conditions

Isothermal compression tests were carried out on Al6061 using a Gleeble-1500 thermal simulator at temperatures ranging from 573 to 723 K and strain rates from 0.5 to 30 s⁻¹. The flow stress of Al6061 was characterized based on an analysis of the true stress-true strain curves. A mathematical mode coupling flow stress with strain, strain rate and temperature for Al6061 has been proposed by using a hyperbolic sinusoidal type equation. The material constant α is 0.01 MPa⁻¹ in the model, whereas other material constants n, lnA and Q are found to be functions of strain. The predicted results from this proposed model are found to be in good agreement with the experimental flow stress curves which can be used to predict the required deformation forces in hot deformation processes.