Dislocation Substructure Evolution during Hydrostatic Extrusion of AlMgSi Alloy

Hydrostatic extrusion is a technique which allows to produce rods with ultrafine grains and unexpectedly enhanced mechanical properties caused by grain refinement. However, the mechanism of such a refinement is not fully understood at this stage. 6xxx aluminium alloys series are usually processed by extrusion. In this study, commercial 6082 aluminium alloy was extruded at ambient temperature in a cooled die in two stages to the true strain of ε = 3.2. Such a processing results in a not fully refined microstructure which allows to study different stages of grain refinement. The texture, dislocation substructures and grain refinement were investigated using electron backscatter diffraction and transmission electron microscopy techniques. The results revealed that two main texture components are present in the extruded rods 〈111 〉 fiber texture and 〈001 〉 recrystallized grains. Transmission electron microscopy inspection revealed dislocation structures that can be associated with different stages of plastic deformation according to the low energy dislocation structures hypothesis proposed by Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf