Tensile deformation behavior of 5A90 Al-Li alloy sheet at elevated temperature

Uniaxial tensile deformation behavior of 5A90 aluminium-lithium alloy sheet is investigated in the hot forming with the temperature range of 200-450°C and strain rate range of 0.3×10 ^-3-0.2×10 ^-1s ^-1. It is found that the flow stress of 5A90 Al-Li alloy in uniaxial tension increase with increasing strain rate and decrease with increasing temperature, however, the tendency of total elongation is just the reverse, and the optimum forming temperature is 400°C. The strain rate sensitivity index (m-value) remarkably increases with increasing temperature for a given strain rate. It is shown that 5A90 Al-Li alloy sheet displays the sensitivity to the strain rate at elevated temperatures. For a given strain rate, the strain hardening index (N-value) decreases with increasing temperature, whereas the N-value increases above 350°C. The constitutive equation of stress, strain and strain rate for 5A90 Al-Li alloy at any temperature is obtained by fitting the experimental data, which gave a good flow stress model for the FEM simulation of hot forming.