Precipitation Kinetics of AA6082: An Experimental and Numerical Investigation

The development of simulation tools for bridging different scales are essential for understanding complex joining processes. For precipitation hardening, the Kampmann-Wagner numerical model (KWN) is an important method to account for non-isothermal second phase precipitation. This model allows to describe nucleation, growth and coarsening of precipitation hardened aluminum alloys based on a size distribution for every phase which produces precipitations. In particular, this work investigates the performance of a KWN model by [1-3] for Al-Mg-Si-alloys. The model is compared against experimental data from isothermal heat treatments taken partially from [2]. Additionally, the model is used for investigation of the precipitation kinetics for a laser beam welding process, illustrating the time-dependent development of the different parameters related to the precipitation kinetics and the resulting yield strength.