Influence of an accumulative roll bonding (ARB) process on the properties of AA5083 Al-Mg alloy sheets

In this study, fully annealed AA5083 type alloy sheets with 1 mm in thickness were processed by accumulative roll bonding (ARB) at room temperature, up to 6 ARB cycles. It was found that microstructure was refined and mechanical properties were significantly improved with ARB processing. The maximum achieved values of hardness and tensile strength were two and three times greater than that of the initial material, respectively. This was attributed to the intensive strain hardening and grain size refinement which occurred during ARB deformation. However, the uniform elongation values were decreased by increasing the number of ARB cycles, and early fracture was registered. SEM fractography of fractured surfaces after tensile tests revealed a typical ductile fracture of ARB processed specimens, which was changed with ARB deformation. It was observed that ductile area on the fractured surfaces and the amount of necking, which occured before fracture, were decreased with increasing the number of ARB cycles