Tensile and shear behavior of recycled AA 6060 aluminium chips by direct hot extrusion

Solid state recycling of aluminium chips is a promising technique to reduce environmental impacts of secondary production. As the recycling process induces a highly oriented microstructure, this study aims to quantify the mechanical properties of extrudates and identify the role of chip boundaries in the fracture behavior. Tensile and shear tests are performed on heat treated AA 6060 alloy and analyzed using digital image correlation. The tensile behavior of the chip-based material is similar to its cast-based counterpart, reaching a yield strength of 230 MPa. Shear properties are close for small deformations, although the chip-based material have lower ductility due to the early onset of damage at the chip boundary. These results confirm the industrial relevance of this process for large scale recycling of aluminium.