Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 61866193

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Materials Science and Engineering A

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

Mechanical properties of the aluminum roll-bond laminate AA5005AA5083AA5005

Arnaud Weck a, , Philippe Bisaillon a , Lihang Nong a , Trevor Meunier a , Haiou Jin b , Mark Gallerneault b
a b

University of Ottawa, Mechanical Engineering Department, 161 Louis Pasteur CBY-A205B, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N6N5 Novelis Global Technology Center, P.O. Box 8400, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 5L9

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Aluminum alloys have long been recognized for their good combination of strength and light weight and have therefore been used for many industrial applications. However, in some alloys inhomogeneous deformations such as Piobert Lders plateau and Portevin-Le-Chatelier bands result in unaesthetic markings on the sample surface. We present here an analysis of a roll bonded aluminum laminate made of an AA5083 core cladded with AA5005. Various microstructures were obtained via heat treatments and the effect of the cladding on the Piobert Lders plateau and on the Portevin-Le-Chatelier band propagation was investigated. Impact tests were performed on the base materials (AA5005 and AA5083) and on the laminate, the latter showing signicant improvements over the base materials. 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 1 April 2011 Received in revised form 12 April 2011 Accepted 14 April 2011 Available online 22 April 2011 Keywords: Roll bond laminate Composite Inhomogeneous deformation Aluminum alloys Digital image correlation Fracture

1. Introduction With tighter requirements for fuel efciency, aluminum alloys have shown a renewed interest in the transportation industry because of their high specic strength (strength/density). In particular, the aluminummagnesiummanganese alloy 5083 (AA5083) is seen as a good candidate for marine and other structural applications. However, if its fracture properties were improved, it could be used in wider applications. Furthermore the inhomogeneous plastic ow in this type of aluminum alloy (also known as PortevinLe-Chatelier or PLC effect) and the propagation of deformation bands (also known as Piobert Lders bands) give rise to undesired markings on the surface of the shaped material [13]. Such inhomogeneous ow has been studied extensively and is believed to be the result of dynamic interactions between dislocations and solute atoms also known as dynamic strain ageing (DSA) [46]. PLC bands on the sample surface have been observed using various techniques such as video-camera recordings [1], thermography [8,9] and digital image correlation analyses [7,10]. Most studies on PL and PLC phenomena were performed on monolithic materials to better understand plastic ow and only few actually looked into ways to decrease or suppress the PL and PLC

effects. By adding hard particles in the aluminum matrix and thus forming a composite material, it was found that the hard particles affected both the onset of the PLC effect and the stress drop amplitude compared to the unreinforced aluminum [1316]. Information on the mechanical properties and formability of aluminum laminates is rare and the effect of the cladding on the PL and PLC effects is almost nonexistent. Recently, Cepeda-Jimenez et al. [12,11] fabricated aluminum laminate structures made of several alternating layers of various aluminum alloys and observed improvements in fracture toughness. However, the materials they studied were from the 1xxx, 2xxx and 7xxx aluminum alloy series which do not exhibit PL or PLC effects. In this paper, the mechanical properties of a laminate made of an AA5083 core and an AA5005 cladding are studied in order determine whether such cladded materials are better suited for sheet metal forming processes. Particular emphasis will be placed on the effect of the cladding on inhomogeneous ow (PL and PLC effects) in the material and on the impact properties compared to the base AA5005 and AA5083. 2. Experimental procedures Three types of materials were selected and provided by Novelis in the form of aluminum sheets cold rolled by 80% with a nal thickness of 1.1 mm. A low magnesium aluminum alloy 5005 (AA5005), a high magnesium aluminum alloy 5083 (AA5083) and a roll bonded laminate made of an AA5083 core with outer layers of AA5005 (each 10% of the entire sheet thickness). The composition

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 613 562 5800x7381; fax: +1 613 562 5177. E-mail address: aweck@uottawa.ca (A. Weck). URL: http://www.weck.ca (A. Weck). 0921-5093/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.msea.2011.04.037

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Fig. 1. Through thickness optical micrographs of the roll-bond laminate AA5005AA5083 (a) as received, and after annealing for 2 h at (b) 300 C and (c) 400 C. The black arrows indicate the boundary between AA5005 (above) and AA5083 (below). Normal direction (ND) and rolling direction (RD) are indicated in the gures.

of the as received materials is Al0.8Mg0.5Fe (wt.%) for AA5005 and Al4.5Mg0.7Mn0.3Fe0.1Cr (wt.%) for AA5083. No compositional changes were observed after subsequent heat treatments performed on the samples. Samples were heat treated in air at 290 C, 300 C and 400 C for 2 h with a heating ramp of 50 C/h and then furnace cooled. To reveal their microstructure, the samples were polished to a mirror nish using a 0.05 m colloidal suspension and electro-etched in a solution of 5% HBF4 for 2 min at 30 V. Tensile tests were performed on an Instron 4482 screwdriven universal testing machine, at a strain rate of 7.8 104 s1 on samples machined as per the ASTM-B557M-02a standard. Strain measurements were performed using the digital image correlation (DIC) technique. For that purpose, a random pattern of ink spots was applied on the surface of each sample using an aerosol spray prior to performing the tensile tests. In situ surface strain measurements were made by tracking the ink spots using the commercially available LaVision DaVis software [17]. After the tests, the fracture surfaces were observed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM), Zeiss EVO MA10. Charpy impact tests were performed on smooth specimens using a TMI Izod Tension Impact Tester with an initial loading velocity of 3.46 m/s and sample dimensions of 80 mm 5 mm 1.1 mm. 3. Results 3.1. Microstructure This section will investigate the microstructure of the roll-bond laminate AA5005AA5083. Fig. 1 shows the through-thickness microstructure of the laminate as-rolled, after annealing at 300 C, and after annealing at 400 C. Non-recrystallized brous grains along the rolling direction are observed in the as-rolled sample (Fig. 1(a)). The sample annealed at 290 C is not shown here because it has the same grain morphology as the as rolled sample. However, different mechanical properties are expected

because the sample annealed at 290 C will have a recovered microstructure. Samples annealed at 300 C (Fig. 1(b)) contain brous non-recrystallized grains in the outer layer and a fully recrystallized microstructure in the core. Samples annealed at 400 C (Fig. 1(c)) contain a fully recrystallized microstructure in both the outer layers and the core. It is interesting to note that samples annealed at 300 C have brous grains in the outer layer while the core is recrystallized. It is the contrary for the sample annealed at 400 C where the grain size in the outer layer is larger than in the core. This can be explained in terms of particle stimulated nucleation (PSN) and grain boundary pinning. Indeed, recrystallization in the core (AA5083) takes place earlier than in the outer layers (AA5005) due to particle stimulated nucleation at 300 C. However, other ner particles pin grain boundaries limiting grain growth in the core at 400 C whereas grains in the outer

Fig. 2. Optical micrograph of AA5083 before cold rolling showing two population of second phase particles.

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Fig. 3. Engineering stress strain curves of the roll-bond laminate AA5005AA5083 as received and annealed at various temperatures for 2 h.

Fig. 4. Engineering stress strain curves of the roll-bond laminate AA5005AA5083 and the base materials AA5005 and AA5083 annealed at 400 C for 2 h.

layer are free grow. Fig. 2 shows the second phase particles in monolithic AA5083 before cold rolling. It consists of coarse constituents with particle size above 1 m and ne dispersoids with particle size below 1 m. The constituents are the Al6 (Fe,Mn) and -Al(Fe,Mn)Si phases formed in the early stage of casting, while the dispersoids are mainly the -Al(Fe,Mn)Si, -Mg2 Al3 and possibly Al6 (Fe,Mn) phases, formed during re-heat/homogenization and hot rolling. The coarse constituents provide PSN sites for recrystallization, while the ne dispersoids provide Zener drag to grain growth. From the optical micrographs, the outer layer thickness was measured to be 120 m on either side. The total thickness of the laminate being 1.1 mm, the outer layers make 20% of the total thickness. 3.2. Tensile tests Tensile tests were carried out on roll-bond laminates annealed at various temperatures, and the resulting engineering stress vs. strain curves were obtained (Fig. 3). The engineering stress strain curves of the base materials, i.e. the AA5005 and AA5083, annealed at 400 C for 2 h were also extracted and compared to the stress strain curves of the laminate annealed at 400 C as shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 5. Close up on the engineering stress strain curves of the base material AA5083 annealed at 400 C for 2 h. The labels on the curve show the location of the peaks used to extract the mean peak height.

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Fig. 6. Experimental axial strain distribution at various sample displacements within the Lders plateau for (a) AA5005 annealed at 400 C, (b) the laminate AA5005AA5083 annealed at 300 C, (c) the laminate AA5005AA5083 annealed at 400 C and (d) AA5083 annealed at 400 C.

The behaviour of the laminate lies between the behaviour of the base materials as expected. A simple rule of mixture was used to predict the behaviour of the laminate by using the stress strain curve of the base materials and their volume fraction (20% AA5005 and 80% AA5083). It can be seen in Fig. 4 that the yield point is pre-

dicted with a high level of accuracy. However, the Lders plateau length is overestimated and the hardening behaviour and failure strains are underestimated. Indeed, the failure strain of the laminate is slightly higher than any of its constituents which suggests that constraining the materials in a laminate can delay fracture. The

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Fig. 7. Experimental axial strain prole taken from Fig. 6 for (a) AA5005 annealed at 400 C, (b) the laminate AA5005AA5083 annealed at 300 C, (c) the laminate AA5005AA5083 annealed at 400 C and (d) AA5083 annealed at 400 C.

present study focuses on the Lders plateau and the serrations due to the PLC effect. The Lders plateau which begins at the yield point has a length of 0.011 (in terms of strain) for the base alloy AA5083. For the laminate, the length of the plateau is decreased to 0.0055 which is half the length found for the base material. Fig. 4 also shows a decrease in the intensity of the serrations between the base material AA5083 and the laminate. To quantify the decrease in serrations intensity, the mean peak height was extracted for each stress strain curve between strains of 0.1 and 0.15 as shown in Fig. 5. The average amplitude of serrations for AA5083 and for the laminate annealed at various temperatures are presented in Table 1. Between AA5083 and the laminate, the serrations changed in intensity from 7.3 MPa to 5.4 MPa which corresponds to a decrease of 26%. This decrease is not far from what would be predicted using the rule of mixture (20% change). The serrations amplitude increases again in the laminate annealed at 300 C and 290 C.

3.3. Digital image correlation In order to visualize the differences in Lders plateau behaviour between the base materials (AA5005 and AA5083) and the laminate, digital image correlation (DIC) experiments were carried out during the tensile tests. The axial local strain distribution at vari-

Table 1 Mean serrations height for AA5083 and the roll-bond laminate annealed at various temperatures. Mean serrations height [MPa] 5083 400 C Laminate 400 C Laminate 300 C Laminate 290 C

Std. Dev. 3.0 2.6 2.8 3.4

7.3 5.4 7.0 8.5

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Fig. 8. Scanning electron micrographs of the fracture surface of the base materials (a) AA5005 and (b) 5083 annealed at 400 C and of the laminate AA5005AA5083 (c) as received, and after annealing at (d) 290 C, (e) 300 C and (f) 400 C.

ous far eld strains, from the beginning of the Lders plateau to the end, is shown in Fig. 6. Comparing the strain distribution evolution of AA5005 and AA5083 annealed at 400 C conrms the stress strain behaviour (Fig. 3), since there is no Lders plateau for AA5005 and a pronounced Lders front for AA5083. The laminate annealed at 400 C shows a plateau but the front is not as sharp as the one present in the AA5083 samples. The strain distribution evolution of the laminate annealed at 300 C (as well as the one annealed at 290 C which is not shown here) is uniform. This indicates that there is no Lders plateau. A more compelling evidence of the differences in the Lders plateau front is presented in Fig. 7 which shows the strain prole along the tensile direction taken from the images in Fig. 6. The sharp Lders plateau front in AA5083 annealed at 400 C can be seen in Fig. 6(d) while the more diffuse front of the laminate annealed at 400 C is shown in Fig. 6(c). 3.4. Fracture surface Fracture surfaces of both base materials and the laminate annealed at various temperatures are presented in Fig. 8. For the

laminated samples, the SEM images were taken with the cladding (AA5005) on the left hand side of the pictures. All materials present microvoids on their fracture surface which are characteristic of a ductile fracture. For the laminate, the higher the annealing temperature, the higher the density of microvoids and the rougher the fracture surface becomes, indicating an increase in ductility. Also, there is no evidence of signicant debonding at the interface between AA5005 and AA5083. The total fracture area was measured from the SEM images and true fracture strains f were obtained using Eq. (1):
f

= ln

A0 Af

(1)

where A0 is the initial area and Af the area measured from the fracture surface. True fracture strains are presented in Table 2. The smallest area measured is on the order of 1 mm2 and from the SEM images, the error in the measurement is 50 m (at 50 magnication) which gives an error for the fracture strain calculation of 2.5%. The fracture strain of the laminate annealed at 400 C (0.66) lies between the fracture strains of the individual components with

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A. Weck et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 61866193 Table 3 Sharpy impact energies. Material 5005 5083 Laminate Energy absorbed [J] 2.35 2.70 3.35 Std. Dev. 0.2 0 0.05

Table 2 True fracture strains obtained by measuring the area at fracture from SEM images. True fracture strain 5083 400 C 5005 400 C Laminate as-rolled Laminate 290 C Laminate 300 C Laminate 400 C

1.98 0.35 0.14 0.24 0.39 0.66

1.98 for AA5005 and 0.35 for AA5083. A simple rule of mixture predicts the fracture strain for the laminate to be 0.676 which is very close to the actual failure strain of the laminate which is 0.66. 3.5. Impact tests Charpy impact tests were performed on the as rolled materials on unnotched specimens. Post-mortem observations of the samples revealed that the AA5005 samples were bent but no cracks appeared on the outer and inner surfaces. AA5083 samples failed completely leaving two separate parts (Fig. 9(a)). The laminate underwent partial failure as seen in Fig. 9(b). Impact energies were measured and are presented in Table 3 were values reported are the average of three tests. The impact energy for AA5005 is the lowest, followed closely by AA5083. The impact energy of the laminate is signicantly larger than either of the base materials. In the case of AA5005, the energy is mainly absorbed by plastic deformation. For AA5083, the energy is mainly absorbed by the propagation of the

crack. The laminate combines both effect, i.e. plastic deformation and crack propagation which results in improved impact resistance. Furthermore, the crack path is not straight like in AA5083 samples (Fig. 9(a)) but deviates resulting in a longer crack path and more energy spent to propagate the crack. Multilayered structure have already been recognized for their improved damage resistance and the laminate studied here is another example of such improvement. 4. Discussions and conclusions The main objective of this work was to investigate the mechanical properties of a roll-bond AA5005AA5083AA5005 annealed at various temperatures. Information on the mechanical properties of metallic laminates is rare in the literature. This work shows the potential of these laminates not only for their known functional properties such as corrosion resistance but also for their mechanical properties. Various interesting microstructures were obtained by annealing at various temperatures. The as-rolled material contains brous grains. Samples annealed at 290 C are also made of brous grains but have a recovered structure. Samples annealed at 300 C have small brous grains in the outer layers and larger recrystallized grains in the core. Finally, samples annealed at 400 C have very large recrystallized grains in the outer layer and smaller recrystallized grains in the core. These microstructures were discussed in Section 3.1 and justied in terms of particle stimulated nucleation and grain boundary pinning. It is interesting to note that by carefully choosing the heat treatment temperature, it is possible to tailor the microstructure (grain size) of the core and shell independently. Another interesting point is the effect the AA5005 shell has on the plastic instabilities in the material, namely the Lders plateau and the serrations due to the Portevin-Le-Chatelier (PLC) effects. The shell decreases the intensity of the serrations seen in AA5083 which is explained in terms of the amount of material tested. Indeed, load drops during serrations only come from AA5083 but when calculating the stress drops, the whole area of the sample is used (AA5083 + AA5005). This decreases the stress drop amplitude compared to the base AA5083. The shell also decreases the length of the Lders plateau by spreading the plasticity over a larger area which results in a more diffuse Lders plateau front as seen in Section 3.3 using digital image correlation. Contrary to the stress drop amplitude which can be explained in a fairly simple way, the decrease in the Lders plateau length is difcult to explain. It has been shown that Lders elongation increases with increasing cold reduction and decreasing grain size [18]. However, in the present work, samples of AA5083 annealed at 400 C have a fully recrystallized microstructure with identical grain sizes, which cannot be responsible for the observed change in Lders elongation. Specimen geometry was also shown to inuence Lders elongation [19] but all specimens in the present work have the same dimensions. It is therefore still unclear what the reasons are for the change in Lders elongation but they probably come from the effect the AA5005 shell has on the core. It is expected that increasing the thickness of the shell with respect to that of the core could results in a material with no visible Lders elongation. A simple rule of mixture based on the mechanical properties of the base materials (AA5005 and AA5083) is able to precisely predict the yield stress of the laminate and the true fracture strains

Fig. 9. Scanning electron micrographs of the fracture surface after impact test of (a) the base materials AA5083 as rolled and (b) the laminate AA5005AA5083 as rolled.

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calculated from the reduction in area at fracture. However, the rule of mixture underestimates the ultimate tensile strength, the uniform elongation and the impact energies. It also overestimates the length of the Lders plateau. This can be explained by the fact that the rule of mixture does not take in account the interactions between the core and the shell. Spreading of the plasticity in the laminate is not taken into account in the rule of mixture and neither are constraining effects between core and shell and crack deection effects which result experimentally in higher ultimate tensile strengths, higher uniform elongations and higher impact energies. It should be emphasized that the uniform elongation in the laminate is larger than the elongation in either of the base materials (AA5005 and AA5083). The combination of materials in a laminate structure can therefore delay the onset of localization in the material. Even though the increase in uniform elongation is only about 4% in the present work, this increase can be important and lead to signicant cost savings for aluminum manufacturing industries. In conclusion, it is possible to tailor the microstructure and mechanical properties of aluminum roll-bond laminates by changing the heat treatment temperature. Some properties can be predicted and tailored to particular applications using a simple rule of mixture such as the yield stress, the serrations intensity and the true fracture strains. However, other properties such as the Lders plateau length, the uniform elongation, and the ultimate tensile strength do not follow a simple rule of mixture because interactions between layers in the laminate play an important role. In the latter case, more detailed models need to be developed to obtain more accurate predictions.

Acknowledgements The support of the Ontario Centers of Excellence is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also wish to thank Dr. D. Lloyd for helpful discussions. References
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