Combined cyclic deformation and artificial ageing of an Al-Mg-Si alloy

Abstract

Room-temperature cyclic deformation of age-hardenable alloys can produce similar strength as artificial ageing in much shorter time, but industrial applicability is limited due to the high number of required cycles. As an alternative, fewer cyclic deformation steps can be combined with traditional artificial ageing: Introducing a small plastic deformation step every ten minutes during artificial ageing of AA6060 at 160 °C reduces ageing time up to a factor of nine, resulting in comparable yield strength yet slightly reduced ultimate tensile strength.

Keywords

• Cyclic strengthening
• Ageing kinetics
• Hardening behavior
• Precipitation
• Aluminum alloys
• Strain