Microstructures and the Mechanical Properties of the Al–Li–Cu Alloy Strengthened by the Combined Use of Accumulative Roll Bonding and Aging

Abstract

In this study, the age-hardening behavior of severely-deformed and then artificially-aged A2099 Al-Li-Cu alloy has been investigated by Vickers hardness test, tensile test and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The combined processing of accumulative roll bonding (ARB) and aging treatment at 373 K for 2419 ks resulted in the highest hardness (~190 HV) for the 5-cycled ARB sample with an age-hardenability of 37±2 HV. For the 2-cycled ARB sample with the aging treatment, the ultimate tensile strength and elongation to failure reached 553 MPa and 7%, which are greater than those of the ARB sample without aging treatment (i.e., 442 MPa and 1%). The corresponding TEM microstructures suggested that the refined '-Al 3 Li particles formed by spinodal decomposition are responsible not only for the higher hardness and strength but also for the optimized strength-ductility balance. Therefore, our proposed strategy; i.e. "take advantage of spinodal decomposition", is regarded as a convincing approach to induce nanosized precipitates within ultrafine grains for optimizing the strength-ductility balance.

Coated and uncoated reinforcements metal matrix composites characteristics and applications – A critical review

“…Onoro et al (Onoro et al, 2009) found that the improvement in hardness and tensile strength due to the presence of composites reinforced with B 4 C particles compared to Al6061 and Al7015 alloy matrix. Yongpeng et al (Tang et al, 2020) described related role in achieving optimized ductility-strength balance by the precipitation of ultrafine-grains for aluminium alloy during the combined processing of accumulative roll bonding (ARB) and aging at 100°C. Pazhuhanfar et al (Pazhuhanfar & Eghbali, 2019) in his work studied the behavior of stir cast Al6061-B 4 C MMCs.…”

Spinodal Decomposition Stabilizes Plastic Flow in a Nanocrystalline Cu-Ti Alloy

“…Recent studies on systems forming Guinier-Preston zones (GPZ) [24] and spinodal microstructures [25][26][27][28] offer promise of a solution to this problem. As these decomposition processes occur homogenously and are weakly affected by the presence of defects such as grain boundaries, such features might be retained for the finest grain sizes and so permit better control of the work hardening behavior and ductility of NC metals.…”