Comparative techniques to investigate plastically deformed 5754 Al-alloy

Cold work (compression) is an important method that produces dislocations mainly used to improve the mechanical properties of Al-alloys. The effect of deformation on 5754 Al-alloy was investigated by Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS), Vickers micro-hardness (HV) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The observation of results obtained by these techniques as a function of degree of deformation showed approximately the same behavior. Mean lifetime and Vickers micro-hardness values changed from 168.0 ± 7.0 ps and 32.0 ± 1.5 Hv, respectively, for the annealed (undeformed) sample to be 214.0 ± 7.0 ps and 43.0 ± 1.5 Hv, respectively, for saturated dislocation samples. Both PALS and HV results seems to be approximately constant above 8.0% degree of deformation which is the start of the saturated dislocation region. 10% degree of deformation is considered to be a threshold point or preferred orientation point obtained from XRD measurements after which saturation of dislocation is also obtained. Due to the variation in the interatomic spacing caused by plastic deformation, a significant increase in the peak broadening and line intensities of the XRD reflections is obtained.