Investigation of Effect of Aging Treatment on Deformation Behavior of Al–Mg–Si Alloy Using Quasi-2D Polycrystalline Sample

Plastic deformation behavior of coarse-grained Al–1Mg–0.3Si alloy with various aging treatments was investigated experimentally at the individual grain level using flat uniaxial tensile specimens consisting of a single layer of millimeter-sized grains. The initial local crystallographic orientations of the grains and their evolutions with different strains were measured by electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) analysis. Additionally, the slip trace evolutions in the samples were also analyzed. It is found that Al-1Mg-0.3Si alloy with different aging treatment exhibited different deformation behavior. Plastic deformation in a solution treated specimen are homogeneous, which has the best ductility. In addition, deformation occurs heterogeneous in the specimen aged at 175 °C for 12 h, and becomes more inhomogeneous in the sample aged at 200 °C for 1 h, which shows the lowest ductility. The interaction modes between the precipitates and dislocation in the heat treated specimens were also discussed according to transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation.