Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Investigation of mechanical properties and microstructural behavior

of 7050 aluminium alloy by multi directional forging technique
G.A. Manjunath a,⇑, S. Shivakumar a, S.P. Avadhani a, P.C. Sharath b
a
KLS Gogte Institute of Technology, Affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi 590008, India
b
Jain University, Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Bengaluru 562112, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Multi directional forging (MDF) is a process of severe plastic deformation used to produce fine grained
Received 2 November 2019 bulk materials. In the present study, 7050 Aluminium alloy is used due to its wider applications in the
Received in revised form 25 January 2020 field of aerospace industry particularly for making blade stringers. During experimentation, As-cast alloy
Accepted 3 February 2020
samples were subjected to solutionizing heat treatment at 400 °C for 20 h to remove segregation effects
Available online xxxx
and undergone multidirectional forging at ambient warmth for different equivalent strains. The mechan-
ical properties such as Vickers’s hardness and compression tests were done on processed and unpro-
Keywords:
cessed samples. The microstructural characterization was done using optical microscopy. It was
MDF
Al7050 alloy
observed that initial compression strength was increased from 505 MPa to 586 MPa and hardness was
Microstructure increased from 141 Vickers hardness number (VHN) to 182 Vickers hardness number (VHN) due to
SPD refinement of grains from 60 mm to 10 mm. It was found that solutionizing heat treatment reduces the
Mechanical properties defects like porosity which was developed during casting process. In the present work, more emphasis
is given on the improvement of mechanical properties and microstructure of as-cast alloys that are
multi-directionally forged.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the First International
conference on Advanced Lightweight Materials and Structures.

1. Introduction
Severe Plastic Deformation (SPD) is currently one of the most
promising method used to convert coarse grain metals and alloys
into ultra fine grained materials. After obtaining ultra fine grained
materials later processed to improve mechanical properties and
physical properties which is certain to meet for a wide commercial
applications [1,2]. There are various SPD experimental techniques
are available to form the ultra fine grain material, such as equal-
channel angular pressing (ECAP), high pressure torsion (HPT),
accumulative roll bonding (ARB), twist extrusion (TE) and multi
directional forging (MDF) or multi axial forging (MAF) [3,4]. But
Multi directional forging technique was found to be one of the sim-
plest plain strain conditions used to attain severe plastic deforma-
tion of the material and can be used to modify the mechanical
properties. During 1990’s, MDF was practiced for the first time to
form the ultra fine grain structure in bulk material. In MDF process,
materials are subjected to very high strains with insignificant vari-
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: manjunathga@git.edu (G.A. Manjunath).
ation in the overall dimensions and fine grains in the samples. The
aluminum alloys can be developed in series like 1XXX, 2XXX,
6XXX, 7XXX and 8XXX alloys. Therefore AA7050 alloy belongs to
the 7XXX family which has high strength, toughness and corrosion
resistance, and hence widely used in aeronautical applications. The
effect of SPD on the mechanical and microstructure properties of
Al7050 alloy have been investigated and reduced strength was
observed after processing using equal –Channel angular pressing
technique [5–9]. The various alloys such as Al2014, Al2024,
Al6061, Al6050, and Al7075 have been processed by MDF to obtain
ultra refined microstructure and to enhance the mechanical prop-
erties 1ike yield strength, tensile strength and hardness [10–12].
The similar work has been carried out for LM2 aluminum alloy pro-
cessed by multi axial forging technique at ambient temperature up
to 3 passes and the strain rate was 0.18, 0.36 and 0.54. UTS and
compression strength was increased after MAF because of work
hardening, casting defect and also breakage of silicon particles in
to fine structure [16]. Sudheer S. Sajjan et al. [17] studied the
influence on the mechanical and microstructure properties of
LM6 aluminium alloy and achieved the grains size 60 mm for
6passes and around 2 mm for 18 passes. The silicon particles which

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.001
2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the First International conference on Advanced Lightweight Materials and Structures.

Please cite this article as: G. A. Manjunath, S. Shivakumar, S. P. Avadhani et al., Investigation of mechanical properties and microstructural behavior of
7050 aluminium alloy by multi directional forging technique, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.001
2 G.A. Manjunath et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
Table 1
Nomina1 chemical composition of AA 7050 (wt %).
Element Al Zr Si
Wt (%) Bal 0.12 <0.12
be consistently distributed along the boundaries and within the
matrix, as resulted in improvement of mechanical properties. In
the present work, the material chosen is Aluminium 7050
(Al7050) alloy because of its wide applications in aerospace indus-
tries such as blade stringers. From the literature survey it was
observed that a very limited work is carried out on Al 7050 alloy
for MDF. In the present work, more emphasis is given on the
improvement of mechanical properties and microstructure of as-
cast alloys that are multi-directionally forged.
2. Methodology and experimentation
In the present study, as-cast Al 7050 alloy was procured and
chemical composition was tested using spectroscopy and it is tab-
ulated in Table 1.
Fig. 1. Multi Directional Forging die with plunger.
Fig. 2. Schematic representation of 3 axis forging on the sample.
Please cite this article as: G. A. Manjunath, S. Shivakumar, S. P. Avadhani et al., Investigation of mechanical properties and microstructural behavior of
7050 aluminium alloy by multi directional forging technique, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.001
Fe Cu Mn Mg Cr Zn Ti
0.14 2.8 0.014 2.2 0.0003 6.34 0.0065
The samples with dimension of 40 mm
40 mm
30 mm were
machined from the as-received samples and subjected to compres-
sion using MDF using split type die and forging die material is
made from H11 tool die steel for multiple passes as shown in
Fig. 1. Samples are heat treated at 400 °C for 20 h in a muffle fur-
nace to remove segregation effects before application of MDF load,
as-cast and heat treated samples were taken in the die at ambient
temperature by utilizing the hydraulic press with tonnage of 100
tons and speed of 0.05 mm/s.
Molybdenum-di-sulphite (M0S2) is used as a lubricant in the die
to reduce the friction. In MDF technique the sample is forged by
tilting the specimen at 90° along the axis as shown in Fig. 2. ‘‘A1-
B1-C1, B1-C1-A1, and C1-A1-B1” [13]. Eq. (1) is used to calculate
the equivalent strain
e ¼ lnðhi=hoÞ ð1Þ
where, hi and ho are initial, final specimen heights respectively.
The specimens were prepared from the forged samples perpen-
dicular to the direction of the final compression axis
30 mm
40 mm
40 mm from the rectangular block. The Vickers
micro hardness measurement was measured for as-cast samples
and MDF samples using a load of 1kgf applied for the dwell time
of 10 s, the standard of 6 indents was used for the fina1 hardness
readings. According to the ASTM E9 standard is used for prepare
cylindrical compression test specimen to aspect ratios of 1.25 for
as-cast and MDF processed samples, test was conducted on a
capacity of 100 kN at a strain rate of 0.5 mm/s. The specimens be
chemically etched using Nital. The microstructures of the specimen
were observed before and after the forging process using metallur-
gical microscope.
3. Results and discussions
During the multi directional forging process, samples were
inserted into the die and forced downwards by pressing to an
 G.A. Manjunath et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx 3

equivalent strain of 1.3. Samples processed at room temperature
for different number of passes are depicted in Fig. 3. Fig. 3(a)
shown MDF processed after 1 pass and Fig. 3(b) shown after 2
passes. Work piece was plastically deformed by plane strain condi-
tion. It is observed that by increasing the amount of strain imposed
on the work piece which leads to breakage of sample after 2 passes.
It is due to number of slip planes activated at room temperature is
less. Micro-segregation restricts the movement of material freely.
Hence for higher pass material got fractured.
3.1. Microstructura1 studies
The microstructure of the specimens Al7050 alloy is depicted in
the Fig. 4. The Grain size was measured by using linear intercept
method. The microstructure of as-cast alloy has an average grain
size of 60 mm exhibits dendritic structure. The alloy consists of an
Al-rich phase and Zn particulates strewn across the grain limita-
tions and at interiors. By passing the alloy for two passes, the grain
size is reduced to about 10 mm in the processed samples by linear

Fig. 3. (a) Al7050 alloy after MDF processing (b) up to two passes.

Fig. 4. (a) Al and Zn particles in the Al7050 alloy (a) As-received samples (b) MDF one pass (c) MDF two passes.

Please cite this article as: G. A. Manjunath, S. Shivakumar, S. P. Avadhani et al., Investigation of mechanical properties and microstructural behavior of
7050 aluminium alloy by multi directional forging technique, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.001
4 G.A. Manjunath et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 2 increased in hardness which occurs during the plastic deformation

Compression strength, hardness, average grain extent of the specimens. [14].
No. of MDF pass Compression Vickers hardness Average grain
strength number (VHN) size (mm) 3.3. Compression test
0 pass 505 141 60
1 pass 544 161 29 Compression test was carried out on the sample as-cast mate-
2 pass 586 182 10 rial, with 0 pass 1 pass and 2 passes of MDF. The compression
strength of as-cast alloy which has not undergone forging (0 pass)
was 505 MPa as depicted in Fig. 6. After processing through MDF
the strength of the alloy increases as following: For N = 1 pass,
the strength is 544 MPa and N = 2 passes and the strength was
586 MPa among the strain rate of 0.5 mm/s, it was pragmatic that
after 2 passes the work hardening of the alloy increased. P.C. Shar-
ath, et al. Observed that when specimens are subjected to MDF, the
improved materia1 strain harden noticeably throughout compres-
sion foremost to elevated compression strength values of MDF
[15].

4. Conclusions

The Multi direction forging process was successfully carried out

on Al 7050 alloy up to an equivalent strain of 0.271. The Compres-
sion test results showed that, strength improved from 505 MPa to
586 MPa due to work hardened material, which exhibits higher
value because of closing of defects like porosity present during
the casting process. The Hardness value increases from 141
to182 VHN due to grain refinement and improved homogeneous
distribution of Zn phase particles be pragmatic in the microstruc-
Fig. 5. Vickers Microhardness as-cast, MDF processed at 1 pass and 2 pass.
ture images. There is a significant improvement in grain size was
observed during the MDF and is due to the heat treatment that
the specimen has undergone. The initial grain size was 60 mm for
1 pass and subsequently it reduced to 10 m.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

G.A. Manjunath: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing -

review & editing, Writing - original draft. S. Shivakumar: Data
curation, Supervision. S.P. Avadhani: Visualization, Investigation.
P.C. Sharath: Validation.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-

cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.

References

Fig. 6. Stress v/s strain curve for as-cast and MDF processed samples.
intercept method as shown in Table 2. It was concluded that with
detailed inspection, after 2 passes of multi directional forging the
distribution of zinc particles were near by the grain boundaries.
3.2. Vickers hardness test
The Vickers hardness test was conducted by considering the 8
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cast alloys shows 141 Vickers hardness number (VHN). After pro-
cessing MDF for 1 pass, hardness value increases to 161 Vickers
hardness number (VHN). Further processing samples for 2 passes,
hardness value increases to 182 Vickers hardness number (VHN)
as depicted in the Fig. 5. The grain refinement happened when
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Please cite this article as: G. A. Manjunath, S. Shivakumar, S. P. Avadhani et al., Investigation of mechanical properties and microstructural behavior of
7050 aluminium alloy by multi directional forging technique, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.02.001