High temperature microhardness study of cavitation in commercial superplastic Supral 150 (Al–6Cu–0·5Zr) alloy and certain steels

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Abstract
A high temperature microhardness tester was used to measure the in situ hardness, at temperatures between 20 and 500°C, of aluminium matrix in the coarsened microstructure of a commercially available superplastic Supral 150 alloy. At superplastic temperature, the hardness of Supral 150 was found to be much lower than the hardness of its aluminium matrix and CuAl2 particles. Activation energy values for deformation of the alloy and its phases were determined from hot hardness data. These data were used to explain the occurrence of cavitation in this superplastic alloy. Similar results are reported for (α+Fe3C)- and (α+γ)-steels. MST/758