Strength and electrical conductivity of ultrafine-grained aluminum alloy Al-2Fe subjected to annealing and straining

In this work the influence of thermal treatment and deformation processing on the microstructure, mechanical properties and electrical conductivity of ultrafine-grained (UFG) aluminum alloy Al-2Fe was considered. The UFG structure in the alloy was formed by high pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature. As was demonstrated, HPT leads to the formation of UFG structure accompanied by the refinement of ferrum aluminide particles to nano-scale, change in their composition as well as dissolution of up to 1 wt.% Fe in aluminum. It was revealed that the optimum combination of strength and electrical conductivity in the UFG alloy can be achieved through additional ageing during annealing or subsequent straining at 200 °С.