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Enhancement of Mechanical Properties On Aluminum Alloys - A Review

This document reviews research on enhancing the mechanical properties of various aluminum alloys through heat treatment processes. It discusses four aluminum alloys that were subjected to solutionizing and aging heat treatments: AA6066, Al6061-TiO2, an Al-Cu-Mg alloy, and a nickel-aluminum bronze alloy. The heat treatments increased the hardness, tensile strength, and compression strength of the alloys. Hardness increased with higher aging temperatures and times. Tensile strength also increased after heat treatment. The document concludes that heat treatment improves the mechanical properties and performance of aluminum alloys for applications in aerospace and other industries.

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97 views3 pages

Enhancement of Mechanical Properties On Aluminum Alloys - A Review

This document reviews research on enhancing the mechanical properties of various aluminum alloys through heat treatment processes. It discusses four aluminum alloys that were subjected to solutionizing and aging heat treatments: AA6066, Al6061-TiO2, an Al-Cu-Mg alloy, and a nickel-aluminum bronze alloy. The heat treatments increased the hardness, tensile strength, and compression strength of the alloys. Hardness increased with higher aging temperatures and times. Tensile strength also increased after heat treatment. The document concludes that heat treatment improves the mechanical properties and performance of aluminum alloys for applications in aerospace and other industries.

Uploaded by

hsemarg
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-JMCE)

e- ISSN: 2278-1684, p-ISSN : 2320334X


PP 05-07
www.iosrjournals.org

ENHANCEMENT OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES ON


ALUMINUM ALLOYS A REVIEW
B.Balamugundan1, L.Karthikeyan2, K.Karthik3, C.Keerthi4
1(

Reserach scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sathyabama University, Chennai, India)


Professor and Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Panimalar Engineering College, Chennai,
India)
3,4(
UG Students, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Panimalar Engineering College, Chennai, India)
2(

ABSTRACT: The mechanical properties of aluminum alloy are purely dependent on the rate at which the
part is heated and quenched. The commercially available aluminum alloys has potential applications in the field
of aircraft. Making modern aircraft is intended primarily to achieve a lightweight structure moving at high
speeds without involving more cost; hence the choice of material is an important factor and is directed in two
ways: discovery of new material and other improving the property of the existing ones. This paper deals with the
investigation of different types of aluminum alloys subjected to heat treatment were discovered. The different
aluminum alloys which are considered here include AA6066, Al6061-TiO2, Al-Cu-Mg alloy and nickelaluminum bronze alloy. Two different types of heat treatment namely solutionizing and ageing were employed in
order to enhance their effects on the mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength and compression
strength. This paper gives out collective survey of enhancement of heat treatment made on different types of
aluminum alloys.

Keywords: Aluminum alloy, Heat Treatment, Hardness, Age hardening


1. INTRODUCTION
The application of aluminum alloys in the field of aerospace and marine technology has tremendously
increasing nowadays. It is on urge to make use of aluminum alloys in a different manner to increase its
mechanical properties. Hence, here we have made a deep study on the enhancement of mechanical properties
due to heat treatment. In the view of heat treatment, there is an increasing strength in the properties of aluminum
alloy. Normally aluminum has lack of strength in its pure form. Due to heat treatment, there is increasing in the
hardness of aluminum alloy [3]. Through the analyses and investigations made on the aluminum alloy we have
determined from the macroscopic point of view, there is an increasing mechanical property in aluminum alloy.

2.

HEAT TREATMENT ON ALUMINUM ALLOYS

The heat treatment applied to the aluminum alloys includes solutionizing and age hardening. Heat
treatment involves the use of heating or chilling, normally to extreme temperatures, to achieve a desired result
such as hardening or softening of a material. Heat treatment techniques include annealing, case hardening,
precipitation strengthening, tempering and quenching. The main objective of heat treatment is to make the
material system structurally and physically fit for engineering application. Heat treatment was done to access
their effects on the mechanical properties e.g. tensile strength and ductility. Normally solutionizing temperature
was carried out depends upon the alloy in which they use. Solutionizing is made at the temperature high enough
to put in solution the alloying elements and obtain a supersaturated solid solution at the range of 510 to550oc
[3]. The increase in the mechanical property having high hardness, a phenomenon called as age hardening. In
the second step of heat
The treatment, it includes the natural ageing or artificial ageing, whereas the natural ageing takes more
time to modifying the mechanical properties. Hence it is replaced with the artificial ageing [5].
The heat treatment involved in the up stated aluminum alloy AA6066 includes the annealing followed
by solutionizing and ageing [1]. It also includes the water quenching after the solutionizing. The solutionizing
temperature was made at between the ranges of (510oc -550oc). It was made at the period of 12 hrs in order to
investigate the effect of soaking time on hardness. After solutionizing, it was taken for water quenching
followed by ageing. Quenching was done in order achieve homogeneity in temperature. Finally, after quenching
ageing was done at three different temperatures 150,175 and 200oc [1].

National Conference on Contemporary Approaches in Mechanical,


Automobile and Building sciences-2014
Karpaga Vinayaga College Of Engineering & Technology

5 | Page

IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-JMCE)


e- ISSN: 2278-1684, p-ISSN : 2320334X
PP 01-05
www.iosrjournals.org
The second material Al6061-TiO2 composites achieve the heat treatment using electrical furnace
controlled by the temperature controller. It also made solutionizing heat treatment followed by quenching and
ageing[2]. The solutionizing was carried out at the temperature of 530 oc for a period of 2 hrs followed by ice
quenching. At last artificial ageing was carried out at the temperature of 175 oc.
The heat technology involved in the third alloy aluminum copper magnesium alloy was solution
treatment followed by age-hardening. It was made for the Al2Cu hardening content. This solutionizing heat
treatment was made mainly in the alloy with higher concentration of magnesium in order to make strengthening
precipitate [3]. Similarly, the aim of ageing is to form the increasing number of fine precipitates as a result to
increasing the strength of alloy. The temperature heated was 550oc for this alloy. Quenching was made after the
solution heat treatment in order to prevent the slow precipitation and to form a super- saturated solution.
The final composite in aluminum alloy is nickel aluminum bronze. It also follows the heat treatment in
order to improve the bonding of particles. It undergoes the solutionizing treatment and ageing in order to
strengthen the material. Solutionizing temperature was 850 and 900 oc for various time periods of 1, 1.5 and 2
hrs respectively. It was then followed by water quenching. The last treatment for this alloy includes ageing at
the temperature of 400 and 500 oc. Thus, heat treatment was made in order to strengthen the composite.
Quenching was made in order to stabilize the material to ambient temperature.

3.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The various results have been obtained due to the heat treatment process. There was an increase in
mechanical properties like hardness, ultimate tensile strength etc...Due to heat treatment made in the various
aluminum alloys, it results in the forming of strengthen material and also no grain boundaries have been formed.
Due to the solutionizing of alloyAA6066 the hardness increased from 130 to144 [1]. The hardness was
measured by Brinell hardness with the ball diameter of 2.5mm. As temperature increases the more solid
dissolves and hence mixed with matrix to form the super saturation. As deformation amount increases grain size
got smaller, enhancing the strength and hardness in AA6066.
In the second material investigation Al6061-TiO2, as 8% wt of TiO2 plays a major role in the
increasing the hardness. Usually hard reinforcement in a soft material like aluminum increases the hardness of
the matrix alloy. The entire heat treated aluminum alloy with TiO2shows the higher hardness value with fine
state of dispersion. The increased hardness was mainly due to the higher ageing time duration. As time duration
increases for the age hardening, it results in the increase in the hardness [2].

Table: 1 Alloys and their hardness before & after heat treatment
Alloy
Al 6066 T6

Hardness before heat treatment


120(BHN)

Al6066-T4

95(BHN)

Al 6061 alloy
Al 6061 T6 8% wt TiO2
Al Cu Mg
With 1% increase in mg

65 (VHN)
80 (VHN)
57.9 (BHN)

Hardness after heat treatment


128 140
(BHN)
100-103
(BHN)
85 (VHN)
110 (VHN)
84.4 (BHN)

From the table, it is clearly known that the hardness value increases for the heat-treated aluminum
alloys. In the material Al-Cu-Mg alloy, there was an increase in the hardness value with the increasing ageing
time period [3]. For ageing temperature 170 oc, there was higher alloy stability in the alloy and hence increases
its hardness with increasing ageing hours.

National Conference on Contemporary Approaches in Mechanical,


Automobile and Building sciences-2014
Karpaga Vinayaga College Of Engineering & Technology

6 | Page

IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-JMCE)


e- ISSN: 2278-1684, p-ISSN : 2320334X
PP 01-05
www.iosrjournals.org
Table: 2 Alloys and their tensile strength after heat treatment
Alloy
Al 6066
Al 6066 T6
Al Cu Mg

Ultimate tensile stress (Mpa)


220-223
461 - 445
312
1% increase in Mg
450 (cast)
740 (Aged)
620 (Solutionized)

Ni Al Bronze

In the nickel aluminum bronze alloy, tensile and compression strength was found. The tensile strength
of the heat treated (Solutionized and aged) condition was higher than the cast aluminum. Similarly, the
elongation property for the Solutionized alloy was more than the cast one. Hence, the heat treated aluminum
alloy attained more tensile strength and ductility property than the cast aluminum.

Fig.1 Tensile stress-strain plots of the bronze samples in as cast and heat treated conditions
4.

CONCLUSION

Experimental study reveals the study of the mechanical properties of the aluminum alloys of the heat
treatment applied in enhancing the performance of the alloys in their various applications. The various
aluminum alloy studied subjected to the heat treatment (solutionizing followed by quenching and age hardening)
makes superior mechanical characteristics and also need of further investigations on it.

REFERENCES
[1] Evren TAN, BilgehanOGEL, Turkish J. Eng. Env. Sci. 31 (2007), 53-60
[2] T.P.Bharathesh, C.S.Ramesh, S.M.Verma, R.Keshavamurthy, Influence of heat treatment on tribological
properties of hot forged Al6061-TiO2 composites, volume 3, June2013.
[3] Girisha.H.N and K.V. Sharma, Influence of process parameters on mechanical properties of heat treated
aluminum copper magnesium alloy, International journal of innovative research in sciences, engineering
and technology, vol.2,Jan 2013.
[4] Pravven Kumar nigam and prakashjain, Effect of heat treatment on tensile and compressive strength of
nickel aluminum bronze, Archieves of applied science research, 2013,5 (1);224-230
[5] Mihaela SMEADA and mariaSTOICANESCU,Review of the air force academy, NO 1 (23) 2013.

National Conference on Contemporary Approaches in Mechanical,


Automobile and Building sciences-2014
Karpaga Vinayaga College Of Engineering & Technology

7 | Page

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