Abstract
The effect of pre-aging time (up to 120 min) and temperatures (428-498 K) on the stress-strain characteristics of Al-16wt%Ag and Al-16wt%Ag-0.28wt%Fe alloys was investigated at different deformation temperatures in the range 353-413 K. The tensile parameters measured for both alloys showed general increase with increasing pre-aging time at 428 and 458 K, while the samples pre-aged at 498 K showed initial softening up to pre-aging time of 60 min followed by increased hardening for longer pre-aging times. The Fe-free samples were generally harder than the ternary samples. The activation energy of the fracture mechanism in both alloys was around 28 kJ/mol. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.