Hot deformation characteristics and processing map analysis of Al-Zn/stainless steel particles-based composite

The hot deformation behavior of Al-Zn/martensitic stainless steel particles-based composite (Al-Zn/6%SSp), was examined in this study. The composite was tested using isothermal compression at 200–350 °C/0.01–10s-1 and a global strain of 0.5. From the results, it was noticed that the composite’s flow stress increased with strain rate increase and drop in temperature. The constitutive equation from the hot-worked composites resulted in an estimated activation energy of 226.27kJ/mol, which was 58% more than that for the self-diffusion of aluminum alloy (142kJ/mol). These findings suggest dynamic recrystallization (DRX) as the dominant deformation mechanism, as confirmed from the microstructures of the hot worked samples mostly at high temperatures and strain rates. Work hardening was predicted to dominate the deformation process by the stress exponent (n) value of 10.36 (which exceeded 5), but this was inconsistent with the microstructural observations. Comparing the linear fitting of calculated flow stress data with the estimated flow stress yielded a correlation coefficient (R2) of approximately 0.97. This observation demonstrates an effective relationship involving the calculated stress with the computed stress value for the composite material that was fabricated. Based on the processing map analysis, the instability regime occurs at 200270 °C/0.01–10s-1. The stable domain established was at 280-340◦C/0.01-10s-1 which is most suitable for achieving the best microstructural conditions for enhanced service performance.