High-Temperature Compressive Resistance and Mechanical Properties Improvement of Strain-Induced Melt Activation-Processed Al-Mg-Si Aluminum Alloy

Even though the high-temperature formability of Al alloys can be enhanced by the strain-induced melt activation (SIMA) process, the mechanical properties of the formed alloys are necessary for estimation. In this research, a modified two-step SIMA (TS-SIMA) process that omits the cold working step of the traditional SIMA process is adopted for the 6066 Al-Mg-Si alloy to obtain globular grains with a short-duration salt bath. The high-temperature compressive resistance and mechanical properties of TS-SIMA alloys were investigated. The TS-SIMA alloys were subjected to artificial aging heat treatment to improve their mechanical properties. The results show that the TS-SIMA process can reduce compression loading by about 35%. High-temperature compressive resistance can be reduced by the TS-SIMA process. After high-temperature compression, the mechanical properties of the TS-SIMA alloys were significantly improved. Furthermore, artificial aging treatment can be used to enhance formed alloys via the TS-SIMA process. After artificial aging treatment, the mechanical properties of TS-SIMA alloys are comparable to those of general artificially-aged materials.