The quantitative relationship between microstructure and mechanical property of a melt spun Al–Mg alloy

This paper reports a study on the microstructure and hardness of an as-melt spun Al–Mg alloy as a potential material used for micro-manufacturing. Our results show that the microstructure is characterized by a nearly single-phase fine-grained Al-based supersaturated solid solution containing a relatively high density of dislocations and the as-melt spun Al–Mg alloy exhibits a much higher microhardness relative to that of the coarse-grained counterpart. The quantitative relationship between microhardness and microstructure was established by quantifying the contributions of various strengthening mechanisms.