Microstructure evolution of 6016 aluminum alloy during compression at elevated temperatures by hot rolling emulation

Microstructure evolution of 6016 aluminum alloy during compression at elevated temperatures was studied by single-pass high temperature compression experiments on Gleeble-1500 thermal-mechanical simulator. The microstructures under various deformation conditions were also analyzed by optical microscope (OM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The results indicate that during hot compression deformation, apparent activation energy of the alloy is 270.257 kJ/mol, stress exponent is 8.5254, natural logarithm of hyperbolic sine flow stress of the alloy has linear relationship with natural logarithm of temperature compensation Zener-Hollomon (Z-H) parameters, and main deformed microstructures of the alloy at low temperature and low strain rate are dynamic recovery microstructures in contrast to a little geometric dynamic recrystallization microstructure within local area at high temperature. Main softening mechanism during deformation of the alloy at high temperature is dynamic recovery, while the dynamic recrystallization occurs partially only at high temperature and high strain rate. And subgrain size decreases with increase of Z-H parameter.