High temperature deformation of friction stir processed 7075 aluminium alloy

The mechanical and microstructural properties of 7075 aluminium alloy resulting from Friction Stir Processing (FSP), into sheets of 7 mm thickness, were analysed in the present study. The sheets were processed perpendicularly to the rolling direction; the tensile mechanical properties were evaluated at room temperature in the transverse and longitudinal directions with respect to the processing one. Tensile tests were also performed at higher temperatures and different strain rates in the nugget zone, in order to analyse the superplastic properties of the recrystallized material and to observe the differences from the parent material as a function of the strong grain refinement due to the Friction Stir Process. The high temperature behaviour of the material was studied, in the parallel direction, by means of tensile tests in the temperature and strain rate ranges of 150–500 °C and 10− 2–10− 4 s− 1 respectively, electron microscopy (FEGSEM) observations were carried out to investigate more closely the fracture surfaces of the specimens tested at different temperatures and strain rates.