Materials Science and Engineering A 535 (2012) 252–257

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Materials Science and Engineering A

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

The flow behavior modeling of cast A356 aluminum alloy at elevated

temperatures considering the effect of strain
N. Haghdadi ∗ , A. Zarei-Hanzaki, H.R. Abedi
School of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The flow stress behavior of cast A356 aluminum alloy has been studied by a set of isothermal hot com-
Received 11 November 2011 pression tests. The compression tests were carried out in the temperature range of 400–540 ◦ C and strain
Received in revised form rates of 0.001, 0.01 and 0.1 s−1 up to a true strain of 0.6. The effects of temperature and strain rate on
14 December 2011
deformation behavior were represented by Zener–Hollomon parameter in an exponent type equation.
Accepted 15 December 2011
Employing an Arrhenius-type constitutive equation, the influence of strain has been incorporated by con-
Available online 24 December 2011
sidering the related materials’ constants as functions of strain. The accuracy of the developed constitutive
equations has been evaluated using standard statistical parameters such as correlation coefficient and
Keywords:
Mechanical characterization
average absolute relative error. The results indicate that the strain-dependent constitutive equation can
Aluminum alloys lead to a good agreement between the calculated and measured flow stresses in the relevant temperature
Thermomechanical processing range.
© 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction where the flow stress is expressed by the hyperbolic laws in an

The workability of cast Al–Si alloys is greatly influenced by the
morphology and distribution of the eutectic Si fibers as well as
primary aluminum dendrites [1,2]. Conventionally, the chemical
modification and thermal treatment have been employed to refine
the microstructure of these alloys [3–7]. However, this kind of mod-
ification is probably accompanied with some shortcomings such as
higher density of porosity in the cast structure, long holding times
to dissolve the eutectic modifiers and environmental safety con-
cerns [3,8]. Long time heat treatment at high temperatures may
also increase the material’s costs. Thermomechanical processing
(TMP) is considered as a more effective microstructural modifi-
cation method controlling the shape and morphology of Si fibers
thereby providing superior mechanical properties [9–13].
To analyze the thermomechanical processes, it is necessary
to describe the change in mechanical response under an exter-
nal loading. This should be conducted in terms of a constitutive
equation which relates stress and strain to the related condi-
tions of temperature and strain rate. The latter plays a crucial
role in numerical analysis, modeling and finding out the optimum
hot forming process parameters. In this regard, various analytical,
phenomenological and empirical models have been developed to
predict constitutive behavior of a wide range of metals and alloys
[14]. Jonas et al. [15] has proposed a phenomenological approach
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 61114167; fax: +98 21 88006076.
E-mail address: nima.haghdadi@ut.ac.ir (N. Haghdadi).
Arrhenius type of equation. Many researchers have been devoted
to assess this equation to suitably applying it to a range of mate-
rials [14,16]. However, most of the previous researches have not
generally considered the effect of strain, which possesses a critical
effect on the accurate prediction of the respected flow behavior.
Taking the effect of strain into account, a revised hyperbolic sine
constitutive equation has been recently proposed to predict the ele-
vated temperature flow behavior in 42CrMo steel [17], Ti-modified
austenitic stainless steel [18], 9Cr–1Mo (P91) steel [19], pure tita-
nium [20], 2124-T851 aluminum [21], and H62 brass [22].
In recent years many attempts have also been carried out to
define a proper relationship describing the instantaneous material
behavior in response to strain hardening and dynamic soften-
ing mechanisms. Based on classical flow stress-dislocation density
relation and kinetics of dynamic recrystallization, Lin et al. [23]
and Qin et al. [24] have established constitutive equations to pre-
dict the flow behavior of 42CrMo steel and ZK60 magnesium alloy,
respectively. The proposed model is capable of predicting the flow
behavior of materials in different regions of a typical hot compres-
sion stress–strain curve (i.e. work hardening, dynamic recovery and
dynamic recrystallization). In addition, introducing a new material
parameter (L) which is sensitive to the deformation temperature
and strain rate, a new constitutive model has been developed to
predict stress–strain curves up to the peak stress in [25].
In the case of aluminum and its alloys, many researchers have
studied the high temperature flow behavior using constitutive
analysis, a comprehensive review of which would be found in
[16]. However, the hot compression deformation behavior of cast

0921-5093/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.msea.2011.12.076
 N. Haghdadi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 535 (2012) 252–257 253

Table 1 parameter (Z) in an exponent type equation [31]. These are

The chemical composition of the experimental alloy.
mathematically expressed as:
Si Mg Fe Zn Cu Mn Ni Cr Al Q 
z = ε̇ exp (1)
7.02 0.337 0.135 0.0129 0.0051 0.0047 0.0031 0.001 Balance RT
 −Q 
ε̇ = AF() exp (2)
RT

aluminum alloys needs to be further investigated to realize the where

 
effect of strain. Accordingly, the present work has focused on the  n1 ˛ < 0.8
relationship between the flow stress, strain, strain rate and tem- F() = exp(ˇ) ˛ > 1.2 (3)
n
perature to predict the flow behavior of A356 alloy, as the most [sin h(˛)] for all 
common cast aluminum alloy. Toward this end, isothermal hot
compression tests were conducted in a wide range of strain rates where R is the universal gas constant (8.314 J mol−1 K−1 ); T is the
and temperatures. The experimental stress–strain data have been absolute temperature in K; Q is the activation energy (kJ mol−1 );
then employed to derive constitutive equation relating flow stress, A, ˇ, n1 , ˛ and n are the materials constants, ˛ = ˇ/n1 .
strain rate and temperature considering the proper compensation
3.3. Determination of materials constants
of strain. Finally, the validity of the developed constitutive equation
has been examined for the entire experimental range.
True stress–true strain data from the compression tests at vari-
ous processing conditions were employed to calculate the materials
2. Materials and methods constants of the constitutive equations. The evaluation procedure
of material constants at true strain of 0.2 as an example is as fol-
The as-cast A356 aluminum alloy was chosen as experimen- lows. For low and high stress levels, substituting the values of F()
tal material the chemical composition (wt%) of which is given in Eq. (2) gives the following relationships, respectively:
in Table 1. The compression testing was conducted according to ε̇ = B n1 (4)
ASTM E209 standard [26] using cylindrical specimens with 12 mm
in height and 8 mm in diameter. The isothermal hot compression ε̇ = C exp(ˇ) (5)
tests were carried out at temperatures of 400, 450, 500, 540 ◦ C and where B and C are the material constants. Logarithm of both sides
strain rates of 0.001, 0.01 and 0.1 s−1 to study the flow behavior of Eqs. (4) and (5) yields:
of the experimental alloy. The specimens were first preheated to
1 1
the preset temperature in an electric resistant furnace and soaked ln() = ln(ε̇) − ln(B) (6)
n1 n1
for 5 min to equilibrate the temperature throughout the specimens.
The specimens were then hot compressed up to a strain of 0.6 fol- 1 1
= ln(ε̇) − ln(C) (7)
lowed by quenching in water right after straining. The true stress ˇ ˇ
values were recorded using a high accuracy load cell (Model: SSM- The value of n1 and ˇ is obtained from the mean slope values
DJM-20 kN) with the capability of measuring the load forces down of ln  vs. ln ε̇ plot and  vs. ln ε̇ plot (Fig. 2) which was found
to 0.1 kg. The displacement data were used to compute the true to be 5.43 and 0.24 MPa−1 , respectively. This gives the value of
strain values. A very thin mica plate was used to minimize the fric- ˛ = ˇ/n1 = 0.0442 MPa−1 . The obtained ˛ value compares very well
tion effect and also to prevent the adhesion of the specimen on the with the published values for Al–Si and Al–Mg alloys by McQueen
die. and co-workers [16,32,33] ranging from 0.01 to 0.08 MPa−1 . For all
the strain levels, Eq. (2) is rewritten as:
 Q
3. Results and discussion n
ε̇ = A[sin h(˛)] exp − (8)
RT
3.1. Flow stress characteristics Taking the logarithm of both sides of the above equation gives:
ln ε̇ Q ln A
The experimental true stress–true strain curves resulting from ln[sin h(˛)] = + − (9)
n nRT n
the hot compression tests at different temperatures and strain rates
are presented in Fig. 1. As is seen, at temperatures of 400 and 450 ◦ C The slope of ln[sin h(˛)] vs. ln ε̇ yields 1/n (Fig. 3a) and for a par-
the flow stress initially increases with strain up to a peak and then ticular strain rate, differentiating Eq. (9) gives:
decreases by a rate that decays with increasing strain. This soften-
 
d ln[sin h (˛)]
ing behavior is likely attributed to dynamic recrystallization (DRX) Q = Rn (10)
d(1/T )
phenomenon [27] and/or dynamic coarsening and morphological
changes of Mg/Si precipitates from rode like (semi-coherent) to Thus, the Q parameter is determined from the slopes of
planar like (non-coherent) [28]. In accord with previous reported ln[sin h ˛] vs. 1/T (Fig. 3b), through averaging the values under
results [29], the dynamic recovery is the predominant restoration different strain rates. ln A is also easily found from the interception
process of the experimental alloy at temperatures above 450 ◦ C. of ln[sin h(˛)] vs. ln ε̇. The activation energy is obtained to be in
the range of 152–171 kJ/mol for different strain values in the tem-
perature range of 400–540 ◦ C. The calculated activation energy falls
3.2. Constitutive equations between Q values reported for aluminum alloys in the literature
[16]. As is well known, some deviation in deformation activation
As is well established the correlation between the flow stress energy is acceptable due to the nature of linear regression method
(), temperature (T) and strain rate (ε̇), particularly at high tem- used for acquiring the Q-value [34]. Furthermore, this difference
peratures, can be expressed by an Arrhenius type equation [30]. may be attributed to the concurrence of dynamic precipitation [35],
Moreover, the effects of temperature and strain rate on deforma- dislocation pinning effect [36] and temperature dependence of the
tion behavior may also be represented by the Zener–Hollomon solute content [37].
254 N. Haghdadi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 535 (2012) 252–257

(a) 35 (b) 50
30
400 °C 40 400 °C
25
True Stress (MPa)

True Stress (MPa)

20 30 450 °C

15
450 °C 20
10 500 °C
500 °C 540 °C
10
5 540 °C

0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
True Strain True Strain

(c) 80
70
60
400 °C
True Stress (MPa)

50
40 450 °C

30
500 °C
20 540 °C

10
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7

True Strain

Fig. 1. The true stress–true strain behavior of the experimental alloy obtained by hot compression tests at strain rates of (a) 0.001 s−1 ; (b) 0.01 s−1 and (c) 0.1 s−1 .

Fig. 2. Evaluating the value of (a) n1 by plotting ln  vs. ln ε̇ and (b) ˇ by plotting  vs. ln ε̇.

Fig. 3. Evaluating the value of (a) n by plotting ln[sin h(˛)] vs. ln ε̇ and (b) Q by plotting ln[sin h (˛)] vs. 1000/T.
 N. Haghdadi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 535 (2012) 252–257 255

175 23
(a) (b)
170 22.5

Q (KJ/mol)
22
165

ln A
21.5
160
21
155 20.5

150 20
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
True Strain True Strain
0.05 2.9
(c) (d)
2.8
0.048
2.7

n
α

0.046 2.6
2.5
0.044
2.4

0.042 2.3
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
True Strain True Strain

Fig. 4. The variation of (a) Q; (b) ln A; (c) ˛ and (d) n with true strain.

3.4. Compensation of strain in Fig. 4. These values were then employed to fit the polynomial
function. A fifth order polynomial, as shown in Eq. (11), was found
It has been recently shown that the deformation activation to represent the influence of strain on the material constants with
energy and material constants are strongly influenced by the strain a very good correlation and generalization. The coefficients of the
[17–25]. Therefore, compensation of strain may have a significant polynomial functions are given in Table 2.
effect on the accuracy of the flow stress prediction and should
be taken into account in order to derive the proper constitutive
equations. The influence of strain in the constitutive equation Q = C0 + C1 ε + C2 ε2 + C3 ε3 + C4 ε4 + C5 ε5
is incorporated by assuming that the activation energy (Q) and
ln A = D0 + D1 ε + D2 ε2 + D3 ε3 + D4 ε4 + D5 ε5
material constants (i.e. n1 , ˇ, ˛, n and ln A) are polynomial function (11)
of strains. In the present work, the values of the material constants ˛ = E0 + E1 ε + E2 ε2 + E3 ε3 + E4 ε4 + E5 ε5
were evaluated at various strains (in the range of 0.05–0.55) at the
intervals of 0.05, the corresponding curves of which are shown n = F0 + F1 ε + F2 ε2 + F3 ε3 + F4 ε4 + F5 ε5

(a) 35 (b) 50

30
True Stress (MPa)

True Stress (MPa)

40 400°C
25 400°C

20 30
450°C
15 450 °C 20 500 °C
10 500°C 540 °C
540°C 10
5
0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
True Strain True Strain

(c) 80
70
True Stress (MPa)

60 400°C
50
40 450°C
30 500 °C
20 540 °C
10
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
True Strain

Fig. 5. The comparisons between predicted (black circles) and measured flow stress curves (solid lines) of A356 experimental alloy at strain rates of (a) 0.001 s−1 ; (b) 0.01 s−1
and (c) 0.1 s−1 .
256 N. Haghdadi et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 535 (2012) 252–257

Table 2 a commonly used statistical parameter and provides information

Polynomial fitting results of Q, ln A, ˛ and n of A356 Al alloy.
about the strength of linear relationship between the observed
Q coefficient ln A coefficient ˛ coefficient n coefficient and the calculated values. The AARE is also computed through a
C0 = 202.1 D0 = 26.12 E0 = 0.0551 F0 = 2.710 term-by-term comparison of the relative error and therefore is an
C1 = −888.5 D1 = −103.8 E1 = −0.199 F1 = −8.85 unbiased statistical parameter to measure the predictability of a
C2 = 6250 D2 = 730.5 E2 = 1.320 F2 = 79.94 model/equation [38]. The value of R and AARE was found to be 0.991
C3 = −20518 D3 = −2398 E3 = −4.02 F3 = −274.8 and 8.1% respectively, which shows that the proposed deformation
C4 = 31556 D4 = 3688 E4 = 5.909 F4 = 422.6
constitutive equation gives an accurate and precise estimate of the
C5 = −18384 D5 = −2148 E5 = −3.435 F5 = −242.0
flow stress.

Once the materials constants are evaluated, the flow stress at 4. Conclusion
a particular strain can be predicted. Accordingly, the constitutive
equation that relates flow stress and Zener–Hollomon parameter In this study, the constitutive analysis of a cast A356 alloy has
can be written in the following form (considering the Eqs. (1) and been carried out performing a set of predetermined hot compres-
(8)): sion tests. The true stress–true strain curves have revealed that
  2/n 1/2 
1
 Z 1/n Z
the flow stress is substantially sensitive to deformation strain rate
 = ln + +1 (12) and temperature. A set of constitutive equations coupling flow
˛ A A stress with strain, strain rate and temperature has been proposed.
The material constants, A and Q in the constitutive equations have
3.5. Verification of constitutive equation been found to be the functions of strain. The comparison between
the experimental results and the flow stresses calculated from the
The developed constitutive equation (considering the com- proposed strain dependent constitutive equation confirmed that
pensation of strain) has been verified through comparing the the developed constitutive equations can be successfully used to
experimental and predicted data (Figs. 5 and 6). As is observed model the flow behavior of cast A356 Al alloy at elevated temper-
a good agreement has been obtained between the experimental atures.
and predicted stress values. The predictability of the constitutive
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