B. Q. Han, D. Witkin, E. J. Lavernia, University of California, Davis, CA; Z. Lee, S. Nutt, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Bimodal nanostructured 5083 Al alloys were produced by consolidation of a mixture of cryomilled 5083 Al powders and unmilled 5083 Al powders with volume fractions of 0%, 15%, 30% and 50%. A bimodal grain size was oberved in the as-extruded cryomilled 5083 Al alloys and a grain size of 150 nm in nanostructured regions and 1 micron in coarse-grained regions, respectively, was documented. A tensile yield strength of 700 MPa was obtained in the fully cryomilled 5083 Al alloy. As the volume fraction of coarse-grain 5083 Al alloys increased, strength decreased but ductility increased. An enhanced tensile elongation associated with the occurrence of a Luders band was observed in bimodal cryomilled 5083 Al alloys. Effect of coarse-grain regions on strength and ductility is discussed. Strength decrease is attributed to the load transfer to the coarse-grain regions. Ductility increase is due to the role of crack blunting and/or bridging of coarse grains. An elastic-perfectly plastic deformationw as observed in compressive behavior when deformed in the longitudinal direction. Due to the elongated distribution of coarse grains, anisotropical behavior with worse behavior inthe transverse direction was observed in the bimodal 5083 Al alloys.
Summary: Deformation behavior of bimodal nanostructured 5083 Al alloys processed by cryomilling is discussed.