Microstructure Evolution and Constitutive Modelling of Deformation Behavior for Al-Mg-Si-Cu-Sc-Zr Alloy Processed with Isothermal Multidirectional Forging

This research is devoted to the microstructure evolution and deformation behavior of the Al-1.2Mg-0.7Si-1.0Cu-0.1Sc-0.2Zr alloy during the isothermal multidirectional forging (MDF) in a large cumulative strain and temperature range. The structure investigation of the studied alloy revealed several phases precipitated during solidification, among which theta(Al2Cu), Q(Al5Cu2Mg8Si6), Mg2Si, Sc-bearing W(AlScCu) and V(AlSi2Sc2) phases were observed. The MDF at 150-350 degrees C and a maximum cumulative strain of 14.4 significantly refined grain structure providing a mean grain size of 1.2-2.1 mu m. The L1(2) structured Al-3(Sc,Zr) dispersoids with a mean size of 10 +/- 1 nm were formed during two-step homogenization annealing. Due to Zener pinning of the nanoscale dispersoids and fine-grained structure, the alloy exhibited near-superplastic behavior in a temperature range of 460-500 degrees C and strain rate range of 2 x 10(-3)-1 x 10(-2) s(-1) with the maximum elongation to failure of similar to 300%. After a strengthening heat treatment, the forged alloy exhibited the yield strength of 326 +/- 5 MPa, ultimate tensile strength of 366 +/- 5 MPa, and elongation of 10 +/- 3%. The hot deformation behavior was described using the Arrhenius type model. The developed model demonstrated high predictability accuracy with a maximum average absolute relative error of 6.6%.