DOI

The influence of decreased temperature of tensile testing on annealing-induced hardening (AIH) and deformation-induced softening (DIS) effects has been studied in an ultrafine-grained (UFG) Al–Zr alloy produced by high-pressure torsion. We show that the UFG Al–Zr alloy demonstrates a DIS effect accompanied by a substantial increase in the elongation to failure δ (up to δ ≈ 30%) depending on the value of additional straining. Both the AIH and DIS effects weaken with a decrease in the tensile test temperature. The critical deformation temperatures were revealed at which the AIH and DIS effects are suppressed. The activation energy Q of plastic flow has been estimated for the UFG Al–Zr alloy in the as-processed, subsequently annealed and additionally strained states. It was shown that the annealing decreases the Q-value from ~80 kJ/mol to 23–28 kJ/mol, while the subsequent additional straining restores the initial Q-value. Alloying with Zr results in the expansion of the temperature range of the AIH effect manifestation to lower temperatures and results in the change in the Q-value in all of the studied states compared to the HPT-processed Al. The obtained Q-values and underlying flow mechanisms are discussed in correlation with specific microstructural features and in comparison to the UFG Al.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8429
JournalMaterials
Volume15
Issue number23
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2022

    Research areas

  • annealing-induced hardening, deformation-induced softening, low temperatures, mechanical properties, ultrafine-grained aluminum-zirconium alloys

    Scopus subject areas

  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Materials Science(all)

ID: 100664384