Deformation mechanism of aluminum-magnesium alloys at elevated temperatures

The study concentrates on the formulation of a reliable constitutive equation for plastic forming of Al-Mg-based alloys above 400 A degrees C and at strain rates above 10(-3) s(-1). The deformation mechanisms of two coarse-grained Al-Mg alloys, also known as AA5182, with grain sizes 21 and 37 mu m were investigated. They exhibited optimum extension at 10(-2) s(-1) and at T equal to 425 A degrees C and above 475 A degrees C, respectively, with uniform elongation above 300 %. The strain-rate sensitivity and the stress exponent were equal to 0.25 and 4, respectively, suggesting that the deformation is controlled by the solute drag of gliding dislocations whereas dislocation climb occurs also in grains whose orientation renders them hard. Grain boundary sliding may contribute to a small extent in the deformation process. The threshold stress was found to be small and the activation energy lies between 144 and 136 kJ mol(-1), i.e., that of Al self-diffusion and Mg diffusion in Al. It is concluded that coarse-grained materials may well fulfill the industrial requirements of forming and within this scope, the use of the low purity coarse-grained Al-Mg-based alloys of the AA5182 type would constitute the next step in the course for further cost reduction.