Uniform Elongation and Yield-Drop Phenomenon in Magnetically Annealed 1050 Aluminum Alloy Prepared by CryoECAP

Abstract:

The ultrafine grained (UFG) 1050 aluminum alloy was prepared by equal channel angular pressing at cryogenic temperature, namely cryoECAP process. The tensile behavior and microstructures of UFG 1050 aluminum alloy after annealing at 90–210 °C for 4 h without and with high magnetic field of 12 T were investigated by tensile tests, transmission electron microscope, and electron backscattered diffraction analyses. After cryoECAP and annealing treatments, the 1050 aluminum alloy has ultrafine grains with 0.7–1.28 μm in size, the ratio of ultimate tensile strength to yield strength is less than 1.24, and the uniform elongation is less than 2.3%. With increasing the annealing temperature from 90 °C to 210 °C, the yield-drop phenomenon becomes more obvious due to the decrease in mobile dislocations to maintain the applied strain rate during tensile deformation. The uniform elongation decreases from 1.55% to 0.55%, the dislocation density reduces from 5.6×10¹⁴ m^-2 to 4.2×10¹³ m^-2, and the fraction of high-angle grain boundaries (HABs) increases from 63.8% to 70.8%. These phenomena cause the higher annihilation rate of dislocations, thereby leading to the degradation of strain hardening effect. During annealing under high magnetic field at 90–210 °C, the low fraction of HABs (61.7%–66.2%) can provide a slower annihilation rate of dislocations, therefore resulting in the higher uniform elongation (0.64%–1.60%) and slower decrease in the flow stress after the yield peak.