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Effect of high-density pulsed electric current on the formability of aluminum alloy

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Abstract

In this study, an energy-saving and highly efficient high-density pulsed electric current (HDPEC) method was used to improve the formability of the aluminum alloy A6061 after T6 heat treatment (A6061-T6). An interrupted tensile test was performed, and the HDPEC treatment was applied after tensile deformation. The results showed that the ductility of A6061-T6 improved by approximately 33% after three HDPEC treatments. The Vickers hardness and residual stress were measured to investigate the effect of the pulsed electric current on formability, and they were recovered after HDPEC treatment. Furthermore, the microstructural morphology and dislocation density were investigated to understand the mechanism of formability enhancement. Detailed analysis shows that the formability enhancement of A6061-T6 after HDPEC treatment is mainly attributed to dislocation elimination, while grain size and crystalline orientation changes are side effects. In addition, the results of equivalent heat treatments demonstrate that the athermal effect of the HDPEC treatment plays a crucial role in the removal of dislocations. Thus, due to the contribution of the athermal effect, HDPEC treatment realizes the advantages of low consumption and high efficiency, and can be dedicated to green processing and manufacturing of metallic materials.

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The associated data and material will not be deposited. However, the raw/processed data required to reproduce these findings can be available on request to the corresponding author.

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Funding

This work was supported by the JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Pioneering) 20K20531.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Micro-Nano Mechanical Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Jaewoong Jung, Shaojie Gu, Sungmin Yoon, Yasuhiro Kimura, Yuhki Toku & Yang Ju

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  1. Jaewoong Jung
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study, conception, and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Jaewoong Jung. The data analysis was performed by Jaewoong Jung and Shaojie Gu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Jaewoong Jung, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yang Ju.

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Jung, J., Gu, S., Yoon, S. et al. Effect of high-density pulsed electric current on the formability of aluminum alloy. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 128, 1505–1515 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-11841-z

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