Study of the Precipitation Kinetics and Mechanisms in 6000 Series Aluminium Alloys Through the Measurement of Electrical Conductivity

Abstract

The precipitation kinetics and mechanisms of 6000 series aluminium alloys (6082 and 6061 alloys) are studied through the changes in the electrical conductivity. This is supplemented by hardness measurements. The Johnson - Mehl - Avrami - Kolmogorov (JMAK) and Austin - Rickett (AR) models are applied to the results of the electrical conductivity measurements carried out on the two aluminum alloys allowing their parameters to be identified. These two models offer a good representation of the precipitation kinetics of the two aluminum alloys. They were also used to calculate the activation energies for the transformations by applying the Arrhenius equation. The activation energies obtained are consistent with the data in the literature. Finally, two partial time - temperature - precipitation (TTP) diagrams are created for the 6082 and 6061 alloys. A comparison of the information obtained from these diagrams and the Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) examinations is proposed for these two aluminium alloys and thus makes it possible to find a good match.