Residual stress development due to thermal cycling of the particle-reinforced alloy EN AW-6061– experiment and simulation : Dedicated to Professor Eckard Macherauch on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of his birth

Abstract

The development of residual stresses and strains in the matrix material of the extruded aluminium alloy EN AW-6061-T6 both with no reinforcement and also reinforced with 15vol.% and 22vol.% α-alumina particles was investigated in thermal cycling tests and additionally by finite-element-simulation for the non-reinforced material. For this purpose cylindrical specimens were heated by a 3kW diode laser and cooled by a water quench. Residual stresses in the surface area of the laser beam and temperature distribution inside the specimen were measured. The results were used to validate the finite-element model for calculating stress and strain distributions inside the specimens.