Effect of Solution Heat Treatment and Artificial Aging on Compression Behaviour of A356 Alloy

Abstract

Aluminium alloys are subjected to heat treatment to increase the strength and corrosion properties. This paper aims to study the effect of heat treatment on the compression behaviour of A356 alloy under quasi static condition and barreling effect. The various heat treatments are: (i) solution heat treatment of 1 h at 540 °C + natural aging 0 h + artificial aging at 180 °C up to 5.5 h, (ii) solution heat treatment of 3 h at 540 °C + natural aging for 20 h + artificial aging at 180 °C up to 5.5 h, and (iii) solution heat treatment of 6 h at 540 °C + natural aging for 20 h + artificial aging at 180 °C up to 5.5 h. Specially to understand the influence of artificial aging at every 0.5 h up to 5.5 h, the specimens were heat treated. From the results, solutionizing for 1 hr have a better compression strength irrespective of the artificial aging. Natural aging had decreased the ductility but increased the strength property. Artificial aging had a significant effect on the compressive strength and peak strength were obtained at 4 h irrespective of solutionizing heat treatment. Compressive strength increased by 33 % for 1 h of solutionizing and 4 h of artificial aged specimen when compared to non-heat treated alloy. Two mathematical relations discussed in literature were used for calculating the radius of the barreled surface followed by validation. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.25.3.20442