Investigation of the Role of Non-octahedral Slip Planes in Tensile Deformation Behaviour of Naturally Aged Aluminium 6061 Alloy

Aluminium alloys suffer from a serious backlash of low formability, hindering their implementation in the automobile sector, where demand has been skyrocketing for decades. However, warm forming techniques have been reported to bear the ability to curb this problem using a forming temperature below the recrystallization point, owing to the direct contribution of the activated non-octahedral slip systems. This calls for an investigation on the onset of secondary slip systems along with an estimation of microstructural characterization and analysis of crystallographic texture since both are expected to have a staggering influence on the mechanical properties at elevated temperatures. Hence, the present investigation deals with thorough microstructural analysis derived from the Electron Back Scattered Diffraction (EBSD) maps and analysis of crystallographic texture through Orientation Distribution Function maps of EN AW 6061 samples deformed through tension both at room and elevated temperature (250 °C). Furthermore, Visco Plastic Self Consistent (VPSC) modelling along with the Finite element (FE) method has also been incorporated with an aim to verify the crystallographic texture and deformation behaviour, respectively. These extensive characterization methodologies provided compelling evidences of the formation of deformation substructures at elevated tempaerature along with distinct represtation of work hardening behaviour of the material. The texture analysis further elaborated on the influence of high temperature on the reduction of unidirectional defects at high temperature, allowing it to regain its symmetry.