Comparison of Properties of Heat Treated Aluminum Alloy 6061 in Magnetic and Non-Magnetic Field Environments

In this work, 13 mm thick AA6061 was solution heat treated at 560oC for 2 hours to homogenize the grains, then quenched in water at room temperature. The quenched alloy was then cold rolled to 85% deformation, which is 2 mm thickness. The rolled specimen was then cut into smaller pieces for heat treatment at 350oC, 400oC and 450oC in a 20 Tesla resistive magnet for 10, 20, 40 and 60 minutes. Similar heat treatments were repeated on another set of samples after the magnet was turned off using the same furnace. Texture measurements and microhardness values in the samples were measured and analyzed. Results of the texture measurements using the volume fractions of the b-fiber show enhancement of recovery when magnetic field was applied as compared to when the magnetic field was turned off. Microhardness data for all the samples show a lot of scatter in their values and no significant changes can be reported on them