Al-Mn alloys containing similar amounts of solutes but various dispersoid densities were cold rolled. The grain subdivision was examined by electron backscatter diffraction. The texture was measured by X-ray diffraction. It is found that a high density of fine dispersoids enhances the development of the Copper and S textures at large strains, and also induces a higher fraction of high angle grain boundaries. It is suggested that the texture evolution affects the grain subdivision and contributes to the formation of high angle grain boundaries.Key words: aluminum alloys; grain boundary; texture; deformation; microstructure
IntroductionThe deformation structure of f.c.c. metals, mainly Cu, Ni and Al has been investigated in a number of studies [1][2][3][4]. Generally the microstructure of metals with high stacking fault energy evolves from a dislocation cell structure into a lamellar structure during cold rolling. While coarse particles induce the formation of deformation zones containing large local misorientation gradients [5], fine particles enhance the tendency for dislocations to arrange into a cell structure [6], leading to a reduced cell size [1,6]. Besides, dispersoids affect the grain subdivision during deformation [7]. The evolution of high angle grain boundaries (HAGB) and grain refinement mechanisms during deformation at large strain receives much attention in recent research, since severe plastic deformation (SPD) is used to produce nanocrystalline materials. The influence of dispersoids on the HAGB fraction evolution is important for the production of nanocrystalline materials by SPD [7]. The influence of non-shearable fine dispersoids on misorientation across boundaries reported in previous research seems controversial. It is reported that fine-dispersed particles increased effectively the mean misorientation between subgrains [8], and also the misorientation of cell block walls [9]. Conversely, it is also reported a lower misorientation across subgrains [7,10] and diffuse boundaries [7] due to dispersoids and also a smaller long-range orientation spread [10] , compared to a single-phase alloy. Previous research shows that the HAGB fraction was reduced by a high density of dispersoids at very large strains (von Mises strain >3) [7,9]. The influence of dispersoids at smaller strains is contradictory, where both a small increase and decrease in HAGB fraction of dispersed alloys are reported [7,9]. A very high HAGB fraction (60-70%) at von Mises strain of 1-3 was reported due to the presence of dispersoids [8].