Plasticity of the ω-Al7Cu2Fe phase

•Activation parameters governing the plasticity of the Al7Cu2Fe phase are evaluated.•Activation parameters were assessed by load relaxation tests between 650 and 1000 K.•High brittle to ductile transition temperature is reported.•Diffusion processes play a major role in the plasticity of the ω-Al7Cu2Fe phase.•Plasticity of the ω-Al7Cu2Fe phase is governed by pure dislocation climb.

Polycrystalline samples with the Al0.693Cu0.201Fe0.106 composition, corresponding to the tetragonal P4/mnc ω-Al7Cu2Fe crystallographic structure, were synthesised by spark plasma sintering and deformed in compression under constant strain-rate conditions, ε˙ = 2 × 10−4 s−1, over the temperature range 650 K–1000 K. A brittle-to-ductile transition is evidenced between 700 K and 750 K. The stress–strain curves exhibit a yield point followed by softening or steady state conditions only. The upper yield stress, σUYS, shows a strong temperature dependence suggesting that the rate controlling deformation mechanisms are highly thermally activated. The strain-rate sensitivity of stress characterised either by stress exponents, nexp, or by activation volumes, Vexp, was measured by the load relaxation technique. High nexp values, i.e., larger than 7, associated with low Vexp, typically smaller than 1 nm3, are measured. The Gibbs free activation energy, ΔG, deduced by integrating Vexp with respect to stress varies from nearly 2 eV at 790 K to 4 eV at 1000 K. Because plasticity of the ω-Al7Cu2Fe phase takes place at temperatures at which diffusion processes are considered as dominant, the results are interpreted in the frame of dislocation climb models proposed to account for high temperature plasticity of crystalline phases.