Tina Hausöl

Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Accumulative Roll Bonded AA6014/AA5754 Aluminium Laminates

Among the well-known methods of severe plastic deformation the accumulative roll bonding (ARB) process is most promising for producing ultrafine-grained (UFG) materials with extraordinary mechanical properties at an industrial scale. Besides, it has also been shown that the ARB process can be successfully used to produce multi-component materials with tailored properties by reinforcement or grading, respectively. In this work, laminates with alternating layers of the high strength aluminium alloy AA5754 and the AA6014 alloy, well-known for good formability and high surface quality, were produced by ARB at 230 °C. Microstructural and mechanical investigations were performed after 2, 4 and 6 ARB cycles by means of light and electron microscopy, nanoindentation experiments and tensile testing. After ARB processing an ultrafine-grained microstructure is obtained. The UFG microstructure as well as the local mechanical properties alter with the layer composition. With increasing number of ARB cycles the interfaces between the layers become more and more wavy by shear band formation. Compared to the pure accumulative roll bonded AA6014 the yield and ultimate tensile strength of the multi-component laminates are considerably higher and are only slightly reduced in comparison to the high strength AA5754. In terms of elongation to failure no reduction in ductility is found. The serrated yielding effect, clearly visible in AA5754, is shifted to higher strains or fully disappears, respectively, whereas in AA5754 the magnitude of serrations increases with increasing number of ARB cycles. Combining AA5754 and AA6014 sheets by ARB results in well bonded ultrafine-grained laminates which exhibit a combination of the beneficial properties of the single-component materials: high strength of AA5754 and good surface quality of AA6014.

Tailored Heat Treated Accumulative Roll Bonded Aluminum Blanks: Microstructure and Mechanical Behavior

Aluminum alloy AA6016 was accumulative roll bonded up to eight cycles and investigated regarding formability by bending tests. Due to the limited bendability of accumulative roll bonding (ARB) processed materials, a tailored laser heat treatment was performed along the bending edge before forming. This tailored laser heat treatment causes a local recrystallization and recovery of the bending samples at the deformation zone, which locally increases ductility and allows higher bending angles achievable with lower forming forces. Between the recrystallized heat treated zone and the unaffected ultrafine-grained (UFG) base material, a gradient in grain size with a bimodal region is formed. This observed microstructural profile is confirmed by local mechanical testing measuring the hardness and strain rate sensitivity by nanoindentation techniques.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of accumulative roll bonded aluminium alloy AA5754

The aluminium alloy AA5754 is used for many technical applications. In this work, the accumulative roll bonding process is applied to this alloy in order to investigate the potential of an ultrafine-grained structure on the mechanical properties of this Al-Mg alloy. Sheets from AA5754 (AlMg3) were successfully processed by accumulative roll bonding in order to obtain an ultrafine-grained microstructure. The ARB process was performed at 230 °C or 250 °C up to 7 or 8 cycles respectively. Thus the grain size decreased from 10 μm (initial state) to approximately 80 nm (ultrafine-grained state, normal direction). The microstructural evolution and the mechanical properties have been investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy, hardness measurements and tensile testing. After one ARB cycle the samples showed an increase in hardness by a factor of almost 2 in comparison to the as-received material. Further processing causes a linear increase of hardness with each additional cycle. Yield strength and tensile strength of the roll bonded specimens are highly increased in comparison to the as-received samples whereas the ductility declined. A considerable increase in ductility is obtained by heat treatment of the ARB specimens at 250 °C, but on the expense of a moderate decreased strength. The deformation behaviour is also influenced by the ultrafine-grained structure. The occurrence of the Portevin-Le Chatelier effect is manifested by serrated stress-strain curves. The amplitude of serrations increases with increasing number of ARB cycles but can be reduced by the appliance of a higher strain rate. Luders strain only occurs at the as-received, i.e. not strained, samples.

Formability of Ultrafine-Grained AA6016 Sheets Processed by Accumulative Roll Bonding

Aluminium alloy AA6016 was accumulative roll bonded up to eight cycles in order to produce an ultrafine-grained microstructure. The formability of these sheets was investigated by means of bending tests. Furthermore the influence of a local laser heat treatment at the bending edge is observed. The strength of the UFG samples is increased by a factor of around two compared to the conventionally grained T4 condition which also results in up to 50 % higher punch forces needed for bending of ARB processed samples. An anisotropic bending behaviour is observed. By applying a tailored laser heat treatment along the bending edge prior to the bending tests a local recrystallization and recovery at the deformation zone of the samples is achieved. Thus, ductility is increased locally whereby bending to an angle of 80° is possible with lower forming forces compared to the non-heat treated specimens. The results are compared to previous studies on mechanical properties and formability investigations of ARB processed AA6016.

Tailored heat treated accumulative roll bonded aluminum blanks: failure under bending stresses

Ultrafine-grained accumulative roll bonded (ARB) sheet metals of aluminum alloys have a high potential for lightweight construction. The mechanical properties can be enhanced regarding strength and ductility by the combination of ARB and a local heat treatment according to the Tailor Heat Treated Blanks technology. The present investigation focuses on the failure behavior of ultrafine-grained ARB blanks. Due to the low formability of these high-strength ARB metals, a detailed understanding of the failure mechanisms is essential. For this purpose, an established approach to determine the different stages of damage of the material for conventional materials is now applied to multilayered aluminum in the as-received and heat-treated condition. In this context, air bending tests are used to qualify and quantify the bending and forming behavior of ARB sheets of AA1050A and AA6016 aluminum alloys.

Mechanical Anisotropy of Aluminium Laminates Produced by ARB

The plastic anisotropy was studied on aluminium sheets with layers of different purity (A: 5N and B: 2N+) produced by accumulative roll bonding (ARB). Both material layers show a contrasting recrystallization behavior where A and B are discontinuously and continuously recrystallized, respectively. Global textures were measured by neutron diffraction. The mechanical anisotropy was measured by tensile testing after different numbers of ARB cycles. The planar anisotropy decreases with the number of ARB cycles while the normal anisotropy reaches a plateau after 4 cycles. Simulations of the Lankford parameters were carried out with the help of the viscoplastic self-consistent scheme (based on the global texture) and compared with the experimental data. Deviations of the simulated values from those of experiment are discussed with regard to through-thickness texture and material heterogeneities.