A correlation between microstructure and residual stress in the 6061 Al–Mg–Si alloy with different thermomechanical process

Depending on the nature of the loading during service, the level and nature of residual stress can contribute to the lower service-life of a component. In this study the internal level of the residual stress of a 6061 Al–Mg–Si alloy with different thermomechanical processes was evaluated by residual stress neutron diffraction (RSND). Commercial tempers such as T6 (peak aged) and O (annealed) were compared with the 6061 alloy after different steps of a thermomechanical processing used for the manufacturing of nuclear fuel plates, R3 and R9H60. The results showed that the lowest level of residual stress was found for the peak age, T6 condition. This was associated with the highest microhardness value (highest density of "β″ phase) and lowest grain size. The O temper was the only condition which showed compressive residual stress and the most coarsened precipitates. The nuclear thermomechanical processes, R3 and R9H60, resulted in increased level residual stress related to the T6 and showed a tensile nature in relation to its parent material (6061-O). Moreover, the RSND technique allows observing that the texture is also higher for the samples processed by the nuclear thermomechanical process due the hot rolling stage.