Microstructural and mechanical properties of ZA10 alloy tubes and their weld seams prepared by Conform continuous extrusion

In the present work,Zn-10 Al-2 Cu-0.05 Ti(ZA10)alloy tubes with a diameter of 12.5 mm and wall thickness of 1.2 mm were fabricated by one-pass and double-pass Conform continuous extrusion.A stabilizing heat treatment[350℃,30 min(furnace cooling)+120℃,12 h(air cooling)]was also applied to some of the double-pass tubes to improve the quality of their weld seams.The yield strength,ultimate tensile strength,elongation and expansion ratio of the one-pass continuous extrusion tube were 268.4 MPa,294.3 MPa,13.8%and 5.5%,respectively.Double-pass continuous extrusion improved these values to 278.4 MPa,317.2 MPa,15.4%and 11.4%,respectively.Double-pass tubes also had fewer aggregations of Al-αprecipitates along the welding seam,which improved seam quality and caused cracks to appear in the matrix,away from the weld-affected zone,during expansion testing.Heat-treated double-pass tubes exhibited superior yield strength(283.9 MPa)and ultimate tensile strength(328.5 MPa)but lower elongation(10.2%)and expansion ratios(10.3%).Additionally,the heat-treated tubes exhibited markedly lower elongation at room temperature due to the remarkable blockage of dislocation motions by fine-scale lamellar(α+η)eutectoid structures and a lower size effect when stretched.