Investigation of Portevin-Le Chatelier Band Strain and Elastic Shrinkage in Al-Based Alloys Associated with Mg Contents

The Portevin-Le Chatelier (PLC) effect in Al-2.30wt%Mg, Al-4.57wt%Mg and Al-6.91wt%Mg alloys has been investigated at various applied strain rates at room temperature in this study. Three-dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC) technique was applied to obtaining the further insight into the spatiotemporal characteristics, in particular the influence of Mg content on deformation behaviors. Mg content has a pronounced effect on serration characteristics, including the serration type and amplitude; Mg content tends to weaken the spatial correlation of the propagative bands. Additionally, the serration amplitude linearly increases with the maximum PLC band strain; high Mg content generates a higher PLC band strain at a given serration amplitude compared with low Mg content. Mg content is found to be effective to enhance the serration amplitude, the maximum PLC band strain and also the amount of elastic shrinkage outside PLC bands.