Journal of Materials Processing Technology 102 (2000) 234±240

In¯uence of aging parameters on the mechanical

properties of 6063 aluminium alloy
Ra®q A. Siddiqui*, Hussein A. Abdullah, Khamis R. Al-Belushi
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, PO Box 33, Muscat-123, Oman

Accepted 17 December 1999

Abstract

The 6063 aluminium alloy were given various heat treatments at under-aged, peak-aged and over-aged temperatures. The effect of
precipitation on the tensile strength, yield strength, hardness, ductility and number of cycles required to fail the alloy at constant stress was
investigated. The variation in time and temperature have improved the mechanical properties of the Al-alloy, whereas the ductility has
decreased. The experimental work has revealed that time and temperature play a very important role in the precipitation hardening process
of the Al-alloy. The initial increase in the tensile strength, yield strength, hardness and fatigue is due to vacancies assisted diffusion
mechanism and formation of high volume fraction of guinier preston (GP) zones, which disturbs the regularity in the lattices. In over-aging
of the alloy, the size of the individual particle increases, but the number of particles decreases. This causes few obstacles to the movement
of dislocations, therefore, the mechanical properties decreases. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) study of the under-aged alloy have
exhibited facet fatigue fracture surface, whereas the peak-aged and over-aged alloy show a mixed mode of fracture, i.e. facet fracture with
striation and also intergranular fracture. # 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Keywords: 6063 Aluminium alloy; Age hardening; Precipitation hardening; Tensile strength; Yield strength; Fatigue; Ductility

1. Introduction phase to more rounded a-AlFeSi phase, which increases

Aluminium does not have good casting or mechanical
properties. These properties can be achieved by adding
magnesium and silicon to aluminium. The addition of these
alloying elements increases the aluminium response to heat
treatment due to formation of Mg2Si intermetallic com-
pound, which improves the casting, corrosion resistance
property as well as the strength of the alloy. This alloy is
named as the 6063 aluminium alloy. Al±Mg±Si alloy is also
known as architectural and decorative alloy; because of its
easy extrudability property, distinctly superior ®nishing
quality and strength. Almost half of all the aluminium
extrusions produced in UK are used in building as reported
by Helby [1].
Zajac at el. [2] in 1993 investigated the hot deformation
behavior of AA 6063 and AA 6005 aluminium alloy. It was
found that small amount of manganese signi®cantly helps in
homogenizing and transforming the plate like b-AlFeSi
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: ‡968-515360; fax: ‡968-513416.
E-mail address: hussein@squ.edu.om (R.A. Siddiqui)
the ductility of the material. The addition of manganese also
increases quench sensitivity of the alloy even when the
cooling rate is as low as 508C minÿ1. This was con®rmed
by Musulin and Celliers [3]. They found that addition of
manganese accelerates the transformation of b-AlFeSi phase
to a favorable a-AlFeSi phase.
Okorafor [4] investigated the corrosion resistance prop-
erty of 6063 alloy in under-aged, peak-aged and over-aged
conditions. The results show that weight loss and rate of
weight loss were both function of exposure time and heat
treatment temperature.
Jiang et al. [5] found that fatigue crack propagation in
crystalline material is normally divided into two successive
stages. In stage I, crack develops along the active slip plane
and it is normal to the direction of applied stress. In stage II,
the propagation of the crack begins in under-aged 6063 Al±
Mg±Si alloy. The alloy exhibits heterogeneous deformation
and slip bands are formed only by one slip system. There is
strong tendency for single slip system activation, which can
be attributed to the high volume fraction and small size of
GP zone and low content of dispersoids.

0924-0136/00/$ ± see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 4 - 0 1 3 6 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 4 7 6 - 8
 R.A. Siddiqui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 102 (2000) 234±240
Table 1
Chemical analysis of the 6063 aluminium alloy
Elements Aluminium Silicon
Wt.% Balance 0.513%
The fatigue crack growth for narrow band Gaussian
spectrum loading in 6063 was investigated by Veers et al.
[6]. The crack growth rates were determined for constant
amplitude loading at stress ratio (R) of 0.09, 0.3, and 0.5, and
for a variable amplitude loading simulated to match a
narrow-band Gaussian spectrum. Crack opening stress levels
measured by this method during constant amplitude loading
are found different because of the different heat treatment.
The results have shown that the crack growth is from
intergranular to transgranular formation.
The growth rate of fatigue cracks in prestrain 6063 T6 Al-
alloy under different stress ratio was studied by Kumar and
Garg [7]. It was observed that the growth rate of fatigue
crack in the prestrain material was more than that of as-
received material. It was shown by crack opening displace-
ment measurements that crack closure occurred to a lesser
extent in prestrain material. Kumar and Garg discussed the
increase in yield strength for fatigue crack growth and they
found that the fatigue life decreased as the percentage of
prestrain increases.
The effect of different aging conditions, with different
chemical composition and dispersoid contents on fatigue
fracture behavior of Al±Mg±Si alloy, was conducted by
Jiang et al. [8]. It was found that the dispersoid phase could
alter the mode of fatigue fracture by the in¯uence on the
deformation uniformity of the alloy.
Fatigue analysis for typical materials including 6063 Al-
alloy system used for vertical axis wind turbine blades was
investigated by Van Den Avyle and Sutherland [9]. Two
types of data were measured: (a) stress versus number of
cycles (S±N curve) and (b) fatigue crack growth rate. The S±
N experiment was conducted on 6063 extruded material
using 100 bend specimens cycled at ®ne alternating stress
amplitudes. The cyclic crack growth rates were measured
using three loading rates.
Considerable work on precipitation hardening has been
carried out. However, in the present investigation the effect
of time and temperature on the mechanical and fatigue
fracture behavior of the 6063 aluminium alloy was inves-
tigated. In the precipitation heat treatment process, the alloy
was heated to 793 K and the solid solution formed at this
temperature is retained in super-saturated state by quenching
rapidly in cold blast of air or in water to avoid any pre-
cipitation during quenching. Finally, the alloy was heat-
treated and the mechanical properties such as tensile
strength, hardness, ductility and fatigue fracture behaviour
of the alloy were studied. The fractured surfaces of different
heat-treated specimens were analysed using scanning elec-
tron microscope (SEM).
235
Magnesium Manganese Iron Copper
0.521% 0.067% 0.087% 0.081%
2. Materials and experimental procedure
6063 aluminium alloy in the form of pro®les were
received from Oman National Aluminium Company of
Sultanate of Oman. The Al±Mg±Si alloy was prepared in
Dubai in the form of billet having the following composi-
tion, Table 1.
The standard tensile and fatigue specimens were fabri-
cated from the pro®les in the College of Engineering Work-
shop, Sultan Qaboos University, according to BSS
speci®cation. The solution heat treatment to all the speci-
mens was carried out in a furnace by soaking the alloy for
2 h at 7935 K followed by quenching in water at room
temperature to preserve the supersaturated solid solution at
room temperature. After quenching, the 6063 Al-alloy
specimens were kept in a freezer to avoid natural aging
of the alloy at room temperature. The arti®cial age hardening
of the specimens were carried out in a temperature-con-
trolled furnace. The fatigue fractured surfaces were
observed using SEM.
3. Results and discussion
The solution heat treated specimens were age hardened at
373, 398, 423, 448, 473 and 498 K for 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and
14 h; to study the effect of heat treatment on the tensile
strength, yield strength, hardness and ductility of 6063
aluminium alloy. The effect of precipitation heat treatment
on fatigue fracture behavior was also investigated at 323,
348, 373, 398, 423, 448, 473, 498, 523, 548 and 573 K for
different intervals, i.e. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 h. The results of the
mechanical properties of aged Al-alloy are presented in
Figs. 1±3.
The variation in tensile strength when exposed to different
temperatures for different intervals of time is shown in Fig. 1.
It can be observed that as the aging time and temperature
increase, a continuous increase in tensile strength is noticed.
Further increase in the aging temperature between 473 and
498 K for 10±12 h has reduced the tensile strength of the
6063 aluminium alloy.
The effect of time and temperature on the yield strength of
the alloy is represented in Fig. 2. The yield strength con-
tinues to increase initially with the increase in temperature.
Maximum yield strength is observed when the alloy is aged
between 10 and 12 h at 473 K. Further heating causes a
steady decrease in the yield strength of the material.
A continuous and pronounced increase in hardness with
the increase in both aging time and temperature is observed
236 R.A. Siddiqui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 102 (2000) 234±240

Fig. 1. Effect of time and temperature on tensile strength of 6063 Al-alloy.

in Fig. 3. The alloy achieves its maximum hardness at 473 K
when aged for 8 h, thereafter, a decrease occurs as the time
and temperature progresses. Fig. 4 shows the in¯uence of
heat treatment on the ductility of the material. The percen-
tage elongation in 6063 Al-alloy falls gradually with
increase in both time and temperature. The over-aged speci-
mens have shown as low as 6% ductility when precipitation
hardened at 498 K for 14 h. Since time and temperature
plays a very important role in age hardening of 6063
aluminium alloy, therefore a further study on fatigue fracture
behaviour of the alloy was conducted and is graphically
illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6.
The fatigue fracture behavior is greatly accelerated by
aging the alloy above the room temperature, because of
precipitation hardening at elevated temperatures and the
increase in time. It is evident from the graph that as the
aging time increases at constant aging temperature, the
number of cycles required to fail at constant stress has
increased (Fig. 5). As the alloy is heat treated above
473 K for any constant time, continuous decrease in number
of cycles to fail in 6063 alloy is observed. The graph in Fig. 6
is a rotation of Fig. 5 by 428.
The results of this work show that in most of the pre-
cipitation hardening system, a complex sequence of time
dependent and temperature dependent changes are involved.
The initial increase in tensile strength, yield strength, hard-
ness and fatigue could be explained by diffusion assisted
mechanism, and also by hindrance of dislocation by impur-
ity atoms, i.e. foreign particle of second phase, since the
material after quenching from 793 K (solution heat treat-

Fig. 2. Effect of time and temperature on yield strength of 6063 Al-alloy.

 R.A. Siddiqui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 102 (2000) 234±240 237

Fig. 3. Effect of time and temperature on the hardness of 6063 Al-alloy.

ment) will have excessive vacancy concentration. As the
aging time and temperature increases, the density of GP
zones will also increase. Hence, the degree of irregularity in
the lattices will cause an increase in the mechanical proper-
ties of the Al-alloy.
The strengthening effect of 6063 could also be explained
as a result of interference with the motion of dislocation due
to the presence of foreign particle of any other phase. Further
heat treatment at higher temperatures and time decreases the
tensile strength, yield strength and hardness of the alloy.
This could be due to coalescence of the precipitates into
larger particles and bigger grain size, which will cause fewer
obstacles to the movement of dislocation, and also due to
annealing out of the defects.
The fatigue fracture surface of the 6063 Al-alloy when
aged for 323 K for a period of 2 h is shown in Fig. 7. The
SEM photomicrograph shows different portion of fatigue
patches separating each other. The increase in magnitude in
stress has produced an increase in the striation spacing. The
fatigue striation spacing changes signi®cantly over a short
distance due to change in local stress conditions as the crack
propagates on the inclined surface. The regular striation can
also be observed in that region, which are perpendicular to
the tensile axis.
Fig. 8 shows fatigue fracture behavior in Al-alloy when
aged for 6 h at 323 K. The alloy exhibits intergranular cracks
with some facets. The faceted fracture appears very close to
the under-aged alloy. The intergranular fracture is very

Fig. 4. Effect of time and temperature on the percentage of ductility of 6063 Al-alloy.
238 R.A. Siddiqui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 102 (2000) 234±240

Fig. 5. Effect of time and temperature on the number of cycles to fail in 6063 Al-alloy.

smooth and is of cleavage type with river pattern, which
indicates brittle crack behavior of the alloy. The intergra-
nular cracks are usually formed in soft zones, and leads to
the formation of facets. These facets and intergranular
fractures are usually found near the fatigue crack initiation
regions. Since the size of the GP zone in the under-aged
conditions is quite small compared to the GP zones in the
peak-aged conditions, therefore, a heterogeneous deforma-
tion tendency is observed in the micrograph.
The SEM photomicrograph (Fig. 9) represents intergra-
nular fracture in peak-aged aluminium alloy. Various points
on the fracture surface show intergranular fracture with
some secondary cracks in the middle of the grains. Although
some fatigue striation are also observed, but the failure
resemble very much the corrosion fatigue fracture surface.
The upper right part of the photomicrograph shows a little
cleavage surface, which represents brittleness in the material
when the alloy was aged at 473 K for a period of 6 h.
The over-aged alloy, Fig. 10, shows striation on the
fractured surface of the specimen when precipitation
hardened for 6 h at 575 K. The fracture surface presents
cleavage fracture, which is the low energy fracture and
propagates along the cleavage plane. The fatigue striation
also indicates that the propagation of the fatigue crack
is due to the stage II. Since the fatigue stress is higher in
stage II, therefore, a homogeneous deformation has occurred
in the material as shown in the SEM photomicrograph,
Fig. 10.

Fig. 6. Effect of time and temperature on the number of cycles to fail in 6063 Al-alloy (428 rotation from the position of Fig. 5).
 R.A. Siddiqui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 102 (2000) 234±240
Fig. 7. Al-alloy aged for 2 h at 323 K showing fatigue striation.
Fig. 8. Al-alloy aged for 6 h at 323 K showing facets fracture.
Fig. 9. Al-alloy aged for 6 h at 473 K showing intergranular fracture.
239
Fig. 10. Al-alloy aged for 6 h at 575 K showing striation and cleavage
fracture.
4. Conclusion
A complex sequence of time and temperature dependent
changes is responsible in precipitation hardening of 6063
aluminium alloy. The experimental results have revealed
that aging between 8 and 10 h at 448 K is the most suitable
combination of time and temperature imparting maximum
tensile strength, yield strength and hardness to the alloy.
Aging at 473 K for a period of 6 h has produced maximum
resistance to fatigue fracture behaviour in the alloy. The
initial increase in the above mechanical properties, is due to
vacancies assisted diffusion mechanism. At room tempera-
ture and high temperatures, i.e. under-aged and peak-aged
condition the vacancies are highly mobile. These vacancies
play a signi®cant role in the formation of GP zones, which
are considerably rich in solute atoms. The local segregation
of solute atoms produces a distortion of the lattice planes
both within the zones and extending for several atomic
layers in the matrix. With an increase in number/density
of zones, the degree of disturbance of the getting regularity
in the lattice increases. Therefore, the mechanical properties
as well as the fracture behavior of the alloy are enhanced.
The strengthening effect can also be as a result of inter-
ference with the motion of dislocation, due to the formation
of precipitates in under-aged and peak-aged conditions. The
peak-aged alloy has the highest mechanical properties
compared to the under-aged and over-aged 6063 aluminium
alloy.
A decrease in the mechanical properties of the alloy in the
over-aging conditions (increase in aging time and tempera-
ture) has occurred because of coalescence of the precipitates
into larger particles, bigger grain size, and also due to
annealing of the defects. This will cause less obstacles to
the movement of dislocations and hence the mechanical
properties starts to decrease. A similar behavior is also
observed in the SEM photomicrographs i.e. the under-aged
alloy exhibits facet fatigue fracture and the peak-aged and
240 R.A. Siddiqui et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 102 (2000) 234±240
over-aged alloy show a mixed node of fracture, i.e. facet
fracture with striation intergranular fracture.
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