Materials Science Forum, Vol.408-4, 721-726, 2002
Microstructure and texture evolution during annealing of an aluminium ARB material
Accumulative roll bonding (ARB) has been suggested as one of a number of methods for producing materials with ultra-fine grain sizes. The annealing response of material produced by the ARB method at two strains has been studied over a wide temperature range. Annealed samples were investigated using the electron back-scatter pattern (EBSP) technique in a scanning electron microscope equipped with a field emission gun, from which the texture, microstructure and boundary misorientation angle characteristics could be determined. Following annealing for 7200 seconds at increasing temperatures, a gradual microstructural coarsening was observed, whilst in each case the rolling texture was retained. Hardness measurements on the samples show a slow decrease in hardness with increasing annealing temperature. The results of the work suggest that annealing in this material results in a process of continuous recrystallisation.