Computed tomography-based characterization of the fatigue behavior and damage development of extruded profiles made from recycled AW6060 aluminum chips

Abstract

The possibility of producing profiles directly by hot extrusion of aluminum chips, normally considered as scrap, is a promising alternative to the energy-intensive remelting process. It has to be taken into account that the mechanical properties depend on the quality of the weld seams between the chips, which arise during the extrusion process. To estimate the influence of the weld seams, quasistatic and cyclic investigations were performed on chip-based profiles and finally compared with cast-based extruded profiles. In order to gain comprehensive information about the fatigue progress, different measurement techniques like alternating current potential drop (ACPD)-technique, hysteresis measurements, and temperature measurements were used during the fatigue tests. The weld seams and voids were investigated using computed tomography and metallographic techniques. Results show that quasistatic properties of chip-based specimens are only reduced by about 5%, whereas the lifetime is reduced by about a decade. The development of the fatigue cracks, which propagate between the chip boundaries, was characterized by an intermittent testing strategy, where an initiation of two separate cracks was observed.