Nam-Seok Kim

In this study, the microstructural evolution of an A7075 aluminum alloy subjected to severe deformation by biaxial alternate forging (BAF) was investigated at room temperature (RT) and 300°C. SEM-BSE observations revealed no significant differences in the morphology or distribution of second-phase particles between the two conditions, indicating that deformation temperature did not markedly affect particle fragmentation at the applied strain level. However, SEM-EDS analysis of the matrix showed a noticeable reduction in Zn content after deformation at 300°C compared to RT, suggesting enhanced solute redistribution during high-temperature deformation. EBSD analyses demonstrated clear differences in deformation microstructures depending on both temperature and strain localization. At RT, the high-deformation region exhibited pronounced lattice distortion and heterogeneous orientation gradients, whereas deformation at 300°C resulted in more uniform IQ contrast and reduced intragranular misorientation, indicative of active recovery. Texture analysis based on ODF sections and pole figures showed moderate development of shear and rolling texture components, with more continuous and stabilized texture features at 300°C. These results indicate that elevated-temperature BAF promotes solute redistribution and recovery-assisted plastic flow without significant alteration of second-phase characteristics.

Effects of Si and Mg as main elements on interface reaction between tool steel and molten Al alloy at 700°C were investigated. Pure aluminum and Al-10mass%Mg alloy showed relatively simple interfacial layers, whereas thicker, multi-layered reaction bonds were found in the diffusion couple of A380 alloy. The diffusion of a large amount of Fe into Al matrix throughout the interfacial layer led to the formation of Al-Fe based intermetallic particles in the Al base metals. The diffusion couple of Al-10mass%Mg alloy showed a similar intermetallic layer as that of pure Al, indicating that 10mass%Mg in the Al melt rarely affected the formation of Al-Fe intermetallic layers. However, A380 alloy showed much expanded soldering area and increased thickness of intermetallic layers. Based on the phase diagram calculated, the solubility of Fe in liquid Al increased significantly with increasing Si content up to apploximately 5mass%, while, in the case of 10mass%Mg addition, the Fe solubility gradually decreased with increasing Mg content. Al-10mass%Mg alloy also showed the same tendency as that of pure Al in the formation and distribution of intermetallic compounds. However, in the Al-12mass%Si alloy, two types of Al-Fe-Si ternary compounds are present on the Al-rich side.

In this paper, as a purpose to apply the supersaturated solid-solutionized Al-9Mg alloy to the structural sheet parts of automotive, tensile tests were conducted under the various conditions and a constitutive equation was derived from the tensile test results. Al-9Mg alloy was produced using a special Mg master alloy containing Al2Ca during the casting process and extruded into the sheet. In order to study the deformation behavior of Al-9Mg alloy in warm temperature forming environments, tensile tests were conducted under the temperature of 373 K-573 K and the strain rate of 0.001/s~0.1/s. In addition, by using the raw data obtained from tensile tests, a constitutive equation of the Al-9Mg alloy was derived for predicting the optimized condition of the hot stamping process. Al-9Mg alloy showed uncommon deformation behavior at the 373 K and 473 K temperature conditions. The calculated curves from the constitutive equation well-matched with the measured curves from the experiments particularly under the low temperature and high strain rate conditions.

In this work, the microstructure and corrosion behavior of a novel Al-6Mg alloy were investigated. The alloy was prepared by casting from pure Al and Mg+Al₂Ca master alloy. The ingots were homogenized at 420 °C for 8 h, hot-extruded and cold-rolled with 20% reduction (CR20 alloy) and 50% reduction (CR50 alloy). The CR50 alloy exhibited a higher value of intergranular misorientation due to a higher cold rolling reduction ratio. The average grain sizes were 19 ± 7 μm and 17 ± 9 μm for the CR20 and CR50 alloys, respectively. An intergranular corrosion (IGC) behavior was investigated after sensitization by a nitric acid mass-loss test (ASTM G67). The mass losses of both the CR20 and CR50 alloys were similar at early periods of sensitization, however, the CR20 alloy became more susceptible to IGC as the sensitization time increased. Grain size and β phase precipitation were two critical factors influencing the IGC behavior of this alloy system.

High strength Al-Mg alloy is an attractive material that has the characteristic of increasing both strength and elongation by adding more solute Mg. However, there is a limitation in the oxidation issue during the casting process when it contains high amounts of solute Mg. New Al-Mg alloy was developed using Mg+Al₂Ca master alloy by making a stable CaO/MgO mixed layer that no significant oxidation occurred. Here, the intergranular corrosion (IGC), electrochemical, and mechanical properties of new Al-Mg alloys fabricated through a combined process of extrusion and cold rolling were studied after the specimens went through artificial aging heat treatment at 200 °C. The results show that the grain size and the volume fraction of anodic β-precipitation (Mg₂Al₃) forming on the grain boundary influence the intergranular corrosion results. Corrosion potential and current density were achieved by potentiodynamic polarization electrochemical test. The results show that corrosion potential remains irrespective of the manufacturing process, while current density increases with artificial aging treatment. Both hardness and tensile mechanical properties decrease on cold rolled specimens after the heat treatment, while increase in extrusion and annealed specimens.

For the purpose of applying a modified 5083 alloy (New 5083M alloy) with high Mg content in various automotive sheet parts, the stretch forming behavior of the 5083M alloy was studied in tensile mode at a wide range of processing conditions. The tensile tests were conducted by using a tensile test machine under the temperature ranges of 100–400 °C and the strain rate ranges of 0.001–1 s⁻¹. The test results showed that the 5083M alloy has superior mechanical properties to that of the commercial 5083 alloy at elevated temperatures. The microstructure before and after the stretch forming was analyzed using optical microscope (OM) equipped with a polarizing filter and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) unit. Deformed microstructure was observed under low temperature conditions and dynamic recrystallized microstructure under high temperature conditions. However, regardless of microstructure evolution, developed deformation textures were distributed in orientation distribution functions (ODF) images. In addition, at high temperature and low strain rate condition, complex shaped cavities which were detrimental to mechanical properties appeared at the grain boundary and grain triple junction. Based on the test results data, a constitutive equation predicting the deformation behavior of the 5083M alloy was derived. The calculated curves by the constitutive equation were compared with the measured curves by experiment and agreed well.

A hot compression test of new Al-6Mg and Al-8Mg alloys was conducted to understand the dynamic recrystallization (DRX) behavior by Mg contents. To investigate the hot workability of Al-Mg with high Mg contents, the hot deformation behavior of Al-6Mg and Al-8Mg alloys was analyzed by a hot compression test in the temperature range of 300–450 °C, and the strain rate range of 10⁻³–10⁰/s. Subsequently, high-temperature deformation behavior was investigated through the processing map and microstructure observation. In this study, the results have shown that, as the Mg contents increase, the maximum and yield strength increase while rapid flow softening after the peak strain has been observed due to accelerated dynamic recrystallization (DRX). Finally, the increase of Mg contents affects an increase of heat dissipation efficiency to be an indicator of regular deformation.