Investigation of Hot Deformation Characteristics and Processing Maps of Al–12Ce and Al–12Ce–0.2Sc Alloys

This study investigates the hot deformation behavior of Al–12Ce and Al–12Ce–0.2Sc (wt%) alloys through an isothermal hot compression test in a wide range of temperatures (300–450 °C) and strain rates (0.001–1 s⁻¹). The true stress–strain curves reveal a typical dynamic recovery (DRV) and dynamic strain aging (DSA) behavior. A sine-hyperbolic Arrhenius-type constitutive model was used to establish the deformation mechanism for these experimental alloys. The processing maps using the dynamic materials (DMM) model show that the maximum power dissipation efficiency \((\eta )\) $(\eta )$ and safe processing window for Al–12Ce alloy are 39% and 450 °C/1 s⁻¹, while Al–12Ce–0.2Sc alloy are 33% and 350 °C/0.001 s⁻¹ & 450 °C/0.01 s⁻¹. The grain sizes were reduced to submicron level during hot compression at a 50% reduction in height. The microstructures of the hot-compressed specimens were correlated with the various domains in the processing maps using optical, SEM, and EBSD techniques.