Prediction of the yield strength during a heat treatment of deformed Al-Mg-Si alloys

The present work focuses on a physical description of phenomena occurring during the heat treatment of a cold deformed aluminium sheet. The major practical interest lies in the prediction of microstructural changes and their impact on the yield strength. The material softening part was described due to thermally activated glide of dislocations. The precipitation kinetics are calculated by using the computational thermodynamics program MatCalc (MATerials CALCulator). The model was validated by comparison with experimental data from tensile tests of cold deformed and heat treated sheets. Finally, it was shown that the model can be used to predict the yield strength during heat treatment of Al-Mg-Si alloys.