Deformation characteristics of Al-4043 alloy

Al–Si alloy is one of the most important and popular materials for lightweight automotive components production. This paper reports on structure and tensile properties of Al-4043 alloy. The results showed that the microstructure of Al-4043alloy is characterized by the presence of spherically shaped Si particles (<3 µm) uniformly distributed within the Al-matrix. The tensile tests were performed at various strain rates (SR, e?) ranged from 5.4 × 10-5 to 1.2 × 10-3 s-1 in the temperature range 300–573 K. This study revealed that upon increasing e?, the yield stress sy0.2, the fracture stress sf and work hardening coefficient ?p were increased according to the Norton power law s=Ce?m, while the total strain ?T was decreased. On the other hand, increasing the deformation temperature T gave the reverse of the above results. The mean value of the energy, Q, activating the deformation process and the strain rate sensitivity index m were determined to clarify the deformation mechanism. Attention has been paid to the role of other phases such as Fe, Cu and Ti on the structure and tensile behavior of Al-4043 alloy.