Investigation of cold rolling influence on the mechanical properties of explosive-welded Al/Cu bimetal

In this study, effect of cold rolling process on the mechanical properties and bond strength of Al/Cu/Al bimetal has been investigated. The bimetal raw material has been fabricated by the explosive welding process. Then, cold rolling process was used to reduce the thickness of explosive-welded plates. The mechanical properties of the raw materials and cold-rolled samples were experimentally measured using the tensile, tensile-shearing and hardness tests along the thicknesses of the samples. Moreover, the fractography of the surfaces after the tensile tests were examined by the electron microscope (SEM). The obtained results show that, with the increase of thickness reduction, the ultimate strength and hardness have been increased significantly, while the elongation percentage has been diminished. Also, the bond strength confirms the relevant known standard criterion which is higher than the strength of the aluminum layers. Examination of the fracture surfaces reveal that, due to the brittle nature of the intermetallic compounds at the joining interface, the nucleation and propagation of micro cracks have been accelerated under tension and plastic deformation. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.