Microstructure and texture evolution of particle-containing AA3104 alloy cold rolled to large strains

Abstract

The evolution of the microstructure in a particle-containing AA3104 aluminium alloy cold rolled to large strains has been investigated using the electron channelling contrast imaging and electron backscattered diffraction techniques. It is found that the microstructure evolves from cell-block structure at low strains into a lamellar structure composed of lamellar boundaries (LBs) and interconnecting cell boundaries at high strains. The orientation dependence of deformation microstructure is also observed in this particle-containing alloy even at high strains. Different particles have different effects on the microstructure evolution. It is found that there is no clear effect of the fine dispersoids on the evolution of lamellar structure even at large strains, while significant distortion of LBs structure occurs around the coarse constituent particles. For both types of boundaries, the average boundary spacing decreases and the average misorientation angle increases with increasing strain. No saturation of these structure parameters is reached. The texture evolves in a typical manner with finely distributed deformation texture components composed of small volume elements of the ideal texture components (brass, S and copper) separated by LBs. It is found that the particles have no strong effect on the texture evolution.