A Study of Cube Grain Nucleation in a Commercial Al Alloy during <i>In Situ</i> and Discontinuous (<i>Ex Situ)</i> Annealing Experiments

Abstract

In the current study the nucleation of Cube grains during recrystallization in a commercial Al-Fe-Si alloy was investigated by in-situ and ex-situ annealing experiments at different temperatures. Both methods confirm that the Cube grains can be nucleated during RX both at large deformed Cube bands and other locations. During annealing only about one third of the Cube nuclei from these other locations developed into Cube oriented recrystallized grains owing to an unfavorable growth environment. Such nuclei needed also a longer incubation time due to their small size compared to nuclei formed at large Cube bands which can form nuclei very fast owing to the well-developed substructure and transition zones promoting nucleation. The growth rate of all Cube nuclei was found to be strongly influenced by their environment. This effect became more pronounced with decreasing annealing temperature due to an increasing amount of recovery.

In-situ annealing and computation study of cube texture development in a commercial aluminum alloy

“…This makes the investigation of the nucleation process especially difficult and was defined by Duggan et al as a problem of \lost evidence" [5]. In order to obtain information about locations where cube grains nucleate during RX besides large deformed cube bands and to characterize the nucleation process in detail, discontinuous annealing experiments can be conducted where the specimens are annealed for differently long periods of time, quenched in water and then subjected to orientation imaging in an SEM at room temperature [24]. An interruption of the microstructural evolution during annealing may influence the RX process, though.…”