Influence of Severe Plastic Deformation on Mechanical Properties of an AA5024 Alloy
Abstract
The paper reports on the effect of severe plastic deformation on mechanical properties of an Al-4.57Mg-0.35Mn-0.2Sc-0.09Zr (in wt. pct.) alloy processed by equal channel angular pressing followed by cold rolling (CR). The sheets of the 5024 alloy with coarse grained (CG) structure exhibited a yield stress (YS) near 410 MPa and an ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 480 MPa, while the YS and UTS of this material with ultrafine-grained (UFG) structure increased to 530 and 560 MPa, respectively. On the other hand, the elongation to failure decreased by a factor of 2 and 4 after CR and CR following ECAP, respectively. It was shown that dislocation strengthening attributed to extensive CR plays a major role in achieving high strength of this alloy. Besides these macroscopic characteristics, jerky flow caused by the Portevin-Le Chatelier (PLC) instability of plastic deformation was examined. The formation of UFG structure results in a transition from mixed type A+B to pure type B PLC serrations. No such effect on the serrations type was observed after CR.