The influence of metallurgical factors on low cycle fatigue behavior of ultra-fine grained 6082 Al alloy

•Experimentally obtained LCF life was validated through TEM, EBSD, SEM and DSC.•LCF life depends upon size of Si-rich precipitates & secondary phase particles, and sub grains formation.•LCF life as well as monotonic strength for CR + AN (200 °C) sample was improved. In the present work, ultrafine grained Al 6082 alloy was produced by cryorolling (CR), room temperature rolling (RTR), CR + annealing (CR + AN) at 200 °C and RTR + annealing (RTN + AN) at 200 °C processes to study the effects of metallurgical factors (ultrafine grain structure, precipitates and secondary phase particles) on its low cycle fatigue behavior. Various characterization techniques such as the transmission electron microscopy, electron back scattered diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry were used to investigate the low cycle fatigue (LCF) behavior of the 6082 Al alloy. It was observed that the sample produced via CR + AN exhibits the highest LCF life when compared to the other samples investigated. The improvement in the LCF life of the 6082 Al alloy after CR + AN is attributed to the presence of small sized Si-rich precipitates, secondary phase particles, sub grains formation (200–400 nm) and high stored energy (32.16 × 10−4 J/mol).