Hot deformation of AA6082-T4 aluminum alloy

High-temperature tensile deformation of 6082-T4 Al alloy was conducted in the range of 623–773 K at various strain rates in the range of 5 × 10−5 to 2 × 10−2 s−1. Stress dependence of the strain rate revealed a stress exponent, n of 7 throughout the ranges of temperatures and strain rates tested. This stress exponent is higher than what is usually observed in Al–Mg alloys under similar experimental conditions, which implies the presence of threshold stress. This behavior results from dislocation interaction with second phase particles (Mg2Si). The experimental threshold stress values were calculated, based on the finding that creep rate is viscous glide controlled, based on creep tests conducted on binary Al–1Mg at 673 K, that gave n a value of 3. The threshold stress (σo) values were seen to decrease exponentially with temperature. The apparent activation energy for 6082-T4 was calculated to be about 245 kJ mol−1, which is higher than the activation energy for self-diffusion in Al (Qd = 143 kJ mol−1) and for the diffusion of Mg in Al (115–130 kJ mol−1). By incorporating the threshold stress in the analysis, the true activation energy was calculated to be about 107 kJ mol−1. Analysis of strain rate dependence in terms of the effective stress (σ − σo) using normalized parameters, revealed a single type of deformation behavior. A plot of normalized strain rate ( $$ \dot{\varepsilon }kT/DGb $$ ) versus normalized effective stress (σ − σo)/G, on a double logarithmic scale, gave an n value of 3.