The conjoint influence of oxygen and hot extrusion on microstructure and mechanical properties of a powder metallurgy processed aluminum alloy

In this paper, Al-8.3Zn-2.3Mg-2.5Cu alloys with different oxygen contents were prepared through complex techniques including blending or ball milling, cold isostatic pressing, vacuum sintering, hot extrusion, and heat treatment, and their microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated. For the samples containing 0.15 wt% and 0.33 wt% oxygen, the sintered density values are 99.1% and 98.7% of the theoretical density, and the corresponding average grain sizes are 5.60 mu m and 4.83 mu m. After heat treatment, the average grain sizes of the samples with 0.15 wt% oxygen subjected to the extrusion ratios of 4:1, 9:1, and 17:1 are 5.17 mu m, 4.28 mu m and 3.83 mu m, respectively, and the corresponding yield strengths are 607 MPa, 615 MPa, and 621 MPa. More-over, the {111}<112> deformation texture changes to {001}<001> and {001}<111> recrystallization textures. In contrast, for the extruded sample (9:1 extrusion ratio) with 0.33 wt% oxygen, the grains are finer, and static recrystallization barely occurs with little variation in texture after heat treatment. This is due to the increase in content of thermostable gamma-Al2O3 particles. Accordingly, the sample with high oxygen content exhibits excellent comprehensive mechanical properties with the ultimate tensile strength of 719 MPa, yield strength of 690 MPa, and elongation of 11.5%. Regarding the strengthening mechanism, apart from the common precipitation strengthening, the contributions of dislocation strengthening and grain boundary strengthening are greater in the 0.33 wt% oxygen alloy than in the 0.15 wt% oxygen alloy. This is due to the pinning effect of gamma-Al2O3 particles on dislocations and grain boundaries.