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Dislocation dynamics study of precipitate hardening in Al-Mg-Si alloys with input from experimental characterization

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Abstract

Partial aging of AA6060 aluminum alloys is known to result in a microstructure characterized by needle-shaped Si/Mg-rich precipitates. These precipitates belong to the non-equilibrium β″ phase and are coherent with the face-centered cubic Al lattice, despite of which they can cause considerable hardening. We have investigated the interaction between these β″ precipitates and dislocations using a unique combination of modeling and experimental observations. Dislocation-precipitate interactions are simulated using dislocation dynamics (DD) parameterized with atomistic simulations. The elastic fields due to the precipitates are described by a decay law fitted to high-resolution transmission electron microscopy measurements. These fields are subsequently used in DD to study the strength of individual precipitates as a function of size and dislocation character. Our results can be used to parameterize crystal plasticity models to calculate the strength of AA6060 at the macroscopic level.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, NO-7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Inga Ringdalen & Sigurd Wenner

  2. Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), NO-7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Sigurd Wenner

  3. SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, NO-7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Jesper Friis

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Jaime Marian

  5. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Jaime Marian

Authors
  1. Inga Ringdalen
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  2. Sigurd Wenner
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  4. Jaime Marian
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Correspondence to Inga Ringdalen.

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The supplementary material for this article can be found at: https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2017.78

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Ringdalen, I., Wenner, S., Friis, J. et al. Dislocation dynamics study of precipitate hardening in Al-Mg-Si alloys with input from experimental characterization. MRS Communications 7, 626–633 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2017.78

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