Regular Article

Influence of Fe-rich particles on microstructure evolution, texture and mechanical properties of Al–Mg–Si–Cu alloys

¹ Key Laboratory of Impact and Safety Engineering, Ministry of Education, Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315211, PR China
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou, Jiangxi 341000, PR China
³ State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, PR China

^* e-mail: wangxiaofeng@nbu.edu.cn

Received: 18 April 2020
Accepted: 7 August 2020

Abstract

The influence of Fe-rich particles on the microstructure evolution, texture and mechanical properties of Al–Mg–Si–Cu alloys was investigated by means of microstructure, texture and mechanical property analysis in the present study. The results show that Fe-rich particles have a significant influence on the microstructure evolution, texture, and final mechanical properties. Although both alloy sheets with different numbers of Fe-rich particles possess the similar microstructure including grain structure and fine particle distribution before solution treatment, the alloy sheet with a large number of Fe-rich particles possesses finer equiaxed grain structure in comparison with the alloy sheet with a medium number of Fe-rich particles after solution treatment. The solution treated alloy sheet with a medium number of Fe-rich particles is mainly comprised of Cube_ND {001}<310> orientation, while the solution treated alloy sheet with a large number of Fe-rich particles possesses weaker texture consisting of Cube_ND and Goss {110}<001> orientations. Fe-rich particles are beneficial to improve yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and r value, whereas reduce n and Δr values. Finally, the effect of Fe-rich particles on recrystallization microstructure and texture was analyzed.