In situ nanotomography of damage nucleation in recycled Al-alloys under plane strain

The proposal aims at understanding and quantifying the damage nucleation mechanisms operating in recycled aluminium alloys when loaded under plane strain tension. In comparison with reference alloys currently used in transport and packaging sectors, these alloys have a higher content in impurities, especially iron, which often leads to decreasing mechanical performance. The main objective is to understand and quantify the impact of µm-sized iron containing intermetallic particles (size, morphology, nature, spatial distribution) and their environment (matrix’ hardness, crystallographic orientations of grains) on ductility of recycled alloys by combining in-situ 3D characterizations at different resolutions of a miniaturized flat plane strain tension sample. The particles and their evolution shall be tracked individually to quantify particularly the damage nucleation processes. The very high resolution 3D data will provide input for digital twin simulation of the particles.