Inter-particle bonding in cold spray deposition of a gas-atomised and a solution heat-treated Al 6061 powder

Sabard, Alexandre; Hussain, Tanvir

Abstract

The heat treatment of a number of gas-atomised aluminium alloys prior to cold spraying recently showed that the resultant microstructural modification was accompanied by an improvement in deposition; however, the relationship between the microstructural homogenisation occurring after recrystallisation and the increase in deposition efficiency and particle–particle bonding had not been investigated. In this study, Al 6061 gas-atomised feedstock powder, before and after solution heat treatment, was cold sprayed and these materials were characterised using electron backscatter diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The solution heat-treated Al 6061 powder showed large stress-free grains as opposed to the as-atomised feedstock powder which exhibited smaller grains with the presence of dislocations. The coating produced from as-received powder exhibited a homogeneous distribution of misorientation and lattice defects throughout the particles, whereas the coating produced from solution heat-treated powder showed a strain concentration in the interfacial zones. This was attributed to the partial dissolution and the clustering of solute atoms, allowing the aluminium matrix to deform around the newly formed precipitates.

Citation

Sabard, A., & Hussain, T. (2019). Inter-particle bonding in cold spray deposition of a gas-atomised and a solution heat-treated Al 6061 powder. Journal of Materials Science, 54(18), 12061-12078. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03736-w

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 1, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jun 12, 2019
• Publication Date: Jun 12, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jun 17, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 17, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Materials Science
• Print ISSN: 0022-2461
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-4803
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 54
• Issue: 18
• Pages: 12061-12078
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-019-03736-w
• Keywords: Al-Mg-Si alloys; Cold spray; Microstructure; Electron backscatter diffraction; Strain distribution
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2197880
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10853-019-03736-w
• Additional Information: Received: 6 March 2019; Accepted: 1 June 2019; First Online: 12 June 2019; : ; : The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.; : All the data used for this study have been included in the document.