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Tailoring the microstructure, mechanical properties, and electrical conductivity of Cu–0.7Mg alloy via Ca addition, heat treatment, and severe plastic deformation

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Abstract

The effects of 0.1 wt.% Ca addition, heat treatment, and SPD processing using the MaxStrain module of the Gleeble thermomechanical simulator on the microstructure, mechanical properties, and electrical conductivity of Cu–0.7Mg (wt.%) alloy were investigated in this work. The binary alloy exhibited a single-phase microstructure, whereas the ternary alloy featured uniform dispersion of Cu5Ca intermetallic particles inside the grains as well as on grain boundaries. These particles resulted in an average hardness that was 33% higher than that of the binary alloy, as well as 13% higher yield strength and 13% higher ultimate tensile strength. The heat treatment process not only enhanced the yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of the samples, but also resulted in the partial spheroidization of Cu5Ca particles within the microstructure of the ternary alloy, resulting in its improved ductility. Following MaxStrain processing, ternary samples exhibited a smaller grain size and a higher fraction of high-angle grain boundaries than binary samples, which was attributed to the vital role of Cu5Ca intermetallic particles in hindering the dislocation motion during deformation. MaxStrain-processed samples exhibited marginally lower electrical conductivities than their initial counterparts; yet, all MaxStrain-processed samples satisfied the electrical conductivity threshold for classification as HSHC Cu alloys.

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The raw/processed data required to reproduce the above findings cannot be shared at this time as the data also forms part of an ongoing study.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been financially supported by the Silesian University of Technology through project No. 11/030/BK_23/1127 and VŠB—Technical University of Ostrava through Project No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/17_049/0008399. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the valuable collaboration and technical support provided by the members of the Faculty of Materials Engineering at the Silesian University of Technology, without which this investigation would not have been possible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Materials Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, Krasińskiego 8, 40-019, Katowice, Poland

    Alireza Kalhor, Kinga Rodak, Marek Tkocz & Hanna Myalska-Głowacka

  2. VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, Faculty of Materials Science and Technology, 17. Listopadu 2172/15, 70800, Ostrava, Czech Republic

    Ivo Schindler

  3. Materials Research Group, Łukasiewicz Upper Silesian Institute of Technology, Karola Miarki 12-14, 44-100, Gliwice, Poland

    Łukasz Poloczek & Krzysztof Radwański

  4. School of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Hamed Mirzadeh

  5. Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100, Gliwice, Poland

    Michał Grzenik, Krzysztof Kubiczek & Marian Kampik

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  1. Alireza Kalhor
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Contributions

Alireza Kalhor: data curation; formal analysis; investigation; methodology; resources; software; validation; visualization; writing—original draft; writing—review and editing. Kinga Rodak: conceptualization; formal analysis; funding acquisition; investigation; methodology; project administration; resources; supervision; validation; visualization; writing—review and editing. Marek Tkocz: conceptualization; investigation; software. Hanna Myalska-Głowacka: data curation; investigation. Ivo Schindler: data curation; funding acquisition. Łukasz Poloczek: data curation. Krzysztof Radwański: data curation; investigation. Hamed Mirzadeh: writing—review and editing. Michał Grzenik: data curation. Krzysztof Kubiczek: data curation. Marian Kampik: data curation.

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Correspondence to Alireza Kalhor.

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Kalhor, A., Rodak, K., Tkocz, M. et al. Tailoring the microstructure, mechanical properties, and electrical conductivity of Cu–0.7Mg alloy via Ca addition, heat treatment, and severe plastic deformation. Archiv.Civ.Mech.Eng 24, 71 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43452-024-00890-0

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