Cyclic stress response characteristics of an aluminum-magnesium-silicon alloy

In this paper, the cyclic stress response characteristics of aluminum alloy 6061 is presented. Test specimens of the alloy were cyclically deformed us ing fully-reversed tension-compression loading under total strain amplitude control. The alloy showed evidence of initial hardening followed by progre ssive softening to failure. The stress response, deformation characteristic s and fracture behavior of the alloy is interactively discussed in light of the competing influences of intrinsic microstructure contributions and def ormation behavior arising from a combination of mechanical and microstructu ral contributions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.