Hot Deformation Behavior and Microstructure Evolution of Extruded 6069 Al Alloy under Tension
The flow behavior and associated microstructural changes of wrought 6069 Al alloy deformed in tension were analyzed in this work. Tensile tests were conducted on an extruded tube with a thickness of 1.6 mm in the temperature range of 300–500 oC, with initial strain rates from 0.001 to 0.1 s-1. The true stress–true strain curves exhibited a peak stress at a critical strain. The overall level of the flow curve increased when the strain rate was increased and/or the temperature was decreased. The flow curves exhibited a typical flow behavior with dynamic softening and showed that the softening degree after reaching the peak stress was dependent on the deformation conditions. This could be related to the softening mechanism. The main softening mechanism of the alloy was dynamic recovery (DRV) at low temperatures; dynamic recrystallization (DRX) occurred as deformed at high temperatures.