KINETICS OF TENSILE DEFORMATION IN A PRECIPITATION-HARDENED ALUMINUM-ALLOY

Tensile tests were carried out on aluminium alloy 6261 (containing mag nesium and silicon) which had been subjected to various aging and over -aging heat treatments with the object of characterizing the now kinet ics in terms of the different treatments. It was found that a glide eq uation which included a strain-dependent now stress term could explain the behaviour and that the now stress-strain curves could be superimp osed on a single curve irrespective of aging conditions by shifting th e strain origins. That is the effect of different heat treatments was to alter the initial now yield stress rather than the kinetics of the deformation process.