Hot tensile deformation behaviors and constitutive model of an Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy

Abstract

The hot tensile deformation behaviors of an Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy are studied by uniaxial tensile tests under the deformation temperature of 340–460°C and strain rate of 0.01–0.001s−1. The effects of deformation temperature and strain rate on the hot tensile deformation behaviors and fracture characteristics are discussed in detail. The Arrhenius-type constitutive model is developed to predict the peak stress under the tested deformation condition. The results show that: (1) The true stress–true strain curves under all the tested deformation conditions are composed of four distinct stages, i.e., elastic stage, uniform deformation stage, diffusion necking stage and localized necking stage. The flow stress decreases with the increase of deformation temperature or the decrease of strain rate. (2) The elongation to fracture increases with the increase of deformation temperature. Under the tested conditions, the strain rate sensitivity coefficient varies between 0.1248 and 0.2059, which indicates that the main deformation mechanism is the lattice diffusion-controlled dislocation climb. (3) The localized necking causes the final fracture of specimens under all the deformation conditions. Microvoids coalescence is the main fracture mechanism under relatively low deformation temperatures. With the increase of deformation temperature, the intergranular fracture occurs. (4) The peak stresses predicted by the developed model well agree with the experimental results, which indicate the validity of the developed model.