Macroscopic behavior
Hardening of aluminum alloys

Beyond a small amount of reversible elastic deformation ( $\approx$ 0.1%), plastic deformation generally leads to an increase in the hardness of a metal alloy through work-hardening, depending on the alloy composition and the amount of deformation. For many alloys, work-hardening, developed for example during cold-rolling forming, is the main method of hardening. Table 1 gives some mechanical properties for such aluminum alloys in the annealed (O) and work-hardened (H) states.

Readers will find extensive data on the properties of these alloys in the article Properties of wrought aluminum and aluminum alloys.