Effect of Severe Plastic Deformation on the Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Cr-modified Cu-Ni-Si Alloys

Abstract

Copper alloys are widely used in automotive, electronics, petrochemical and nuclear applications due to their good mechanical/ corrosion resistance and conductivity. Although mostly beryllium containing copper alloys are utilized in these industries due to their superior properties. However, due to the toxic effects of beryllium, there is a need for alternative copper alloys. Among the alternative alloys, Cu-Ni-Si alloys known as Corson alloys are commonly preferred. Both alloying and thermomechanical treatments play important roles to attain similar or better properties in this alloy system, compared to the beryllium containing Cu alloys. In this research, a combined thermomechanical treatment is performed in order to characterize the effect of severe plastic deformation and subsequent heat treatments (i.e., precipitation hardening) on strength, hardness and electrical conductivity of Corson alloys modified by Chromium. The copper alloys having different chemical compositions (Cr contents) are processed using equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) after solution annealing and quenching. The behavior of Cr-modified alloys is characterized in detail and the effect of the combined thermomechanical treatment and of the Cr content on the final mechanical and physical behavior is discussed. The results show that during aging of solution treated alloys containing 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 wt-% Cr, a significant increase in both hardness and electrical conductivity is observed, and that increasing Cr content also leads to an increase of both properties. After processing by two-pass ECAP, the hardness of all investigated alloys is significantly increased compared with the solution treated state, whereas the electrical conductivity is adversely affected by severe plastic deformation. The mechanical behavior of the ECAPed alloys can be enhanced even further by performing post-ECAP aging. Therefore, it allows us to develop Cu-Ni-Si alloys by severe plastic deformation process, as an alternative to commonly used beryllium containing copper alloys. The preliminary results provide new insights for the development of construction materials that can be used in the electronic industry, high-speed rail systems, aerospace applications and nuclear power plants, which are recently high priority topics.