Evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties of Al 6061 alloy tube in cyclic rotating bending process

To refine the microstructure and improve the mechanical properties of metal tubes, a new concept of severe plastic deformation process of cyclic rotating bending (CRB) was newly introduced. The current study focused on the investigation of evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties of Al 6061 tube in the CRB process with different deformation conditions. For this purpose, the CRB processes were performed with different deformation temperatures, bending angles and deformation times. The tensile test and Vickers hardness test were employed to evaluate the tensile properties and micro-hardness of the tube, respectively. While the Optical Microscope and Scanning Electronic Microscope equipped with Electron Back-Scattered Diffraction were utilized for the microstructure characterizations. The results shows that the deformation temperature, bending angle and deformation time have the strong influences on the mechanical properties and microstructure of the tubes processed by the CRB process. As a result, the tube with an average grain size of about 55 µm, as well as ultimate tensile strength of 244 MPa and total elongation of 10.05% was successfully obtained with the optimized deformation condition of the CRB process with a temperature of 100 °C, bending angle of 174°, the rotation speed of 20 r/min, and deformation time of 5 min, respectively.