Tensile deformation and fracture behavior of CuZn5 brass alloy at high temperature

Alpha brass alloys are widely used for production of rectangular waveguides because of their low bulk resistivity. In this paper, the microstructure, tensile deformation and fracture behavior of CuZn5 brass alloy were investigated. The strain rate sensitivity and its relation to post-uniform deformation in tensile test and correlation between strain hardening exponent (n) and temperature were examined. The results show that strain hardening exponent decreases from 0.5 to 0.4 with increase in test temperature from 250 to 450 °C. Tensile fracture mechanisms of as-extruded CuZn5 brass alloy were studied over a range of temperatures from 300 to 450 °C and range of strain rates from 0.01 to 0.4 1/s by means of scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The results show that different fracture mechanisms operate in different temperature and strain rate ranges. While transgranular dimple fracture is dominant at 300 °C and 0.4 1/s, the dominant fracture mechanism at 450 °C and 0.01 1/s is cleavage facets. Precipitations and grain boundary sliding at high temperature may be the mechanism of ductility drop. Dynamic strain ageing (DSA) did not occur since none of the manifestations of DSA are observed.