Post-fire Mechanical Properties of Aluminum Alloys and Aluminum Welds

Abstract

The focus of this research was to quantify the post-fire mechanical properties of 5083-H116 and 6082-T6 aluminum alloys. Post-fire exposure is considered heating the material to a particular temperature then cooling the material back to room temperature. The research included evaluating parent materials as well as welded samples.

Post-fire mechanical properties of parent materials were evaluated at temperatures ranging from ambient to 500oC with isothermal and transient heating. Changes in material properties were evaluated through static tensile tests and hardness testing on cooled samples. Using this data, an assessment was performed to investigate the relationship between hardness and mechanical properties. For the alloys evaluated, empirical relationships were found between Vickers hardness and post-fire strength.

Testing was also performed on butt welded samples of 6082-T6 exposed isothermally to temperatures ranging from ambient to 500oC. Vickers hardness profiles were measured across a sample to quantify the hardness of the weld, heat affected zone, and parent material. This was performed at room temperature and following different heat exposures. Static tensile tests were used to evaluate the effect of reheating on the welded samples. Post-fire strength of welded samples was strongly affected by weld geometry. Parent material hardness varied with reheating while weld hardness remained constant. At select temperatures, this resulted in the weld having a higher Vickers hardness than the parent material. Despite this tensile failure always occurred within the weld.