Microstructure, Texture, and Hardness Evolutions of Al-Mg-Si-Cu Alloy during Annealing Treatment

Abstract

Microstructure, texture and hardness evolutions of Al-Mg-Si-Cu alloy during annealing treatment were studied by microstructure, texture and hardness characterization in the present study. The experimental results show that microstructure, texture and hardness will change to some extent with the increase of annealing temperature. The microstructure transforms from the elongated bands to elongated grains first, and then the grains grow continuously. The texture transforms from the initial deformation texture b fiber to recrystallization texture mainly consisting of CubeND {001}<310> and P {011}<122> orientations first, and then the recrystallization texture may be enhanced continuously as a result of the grain growth. Hardness decreases slowly at first, and then decreases sharply and increases significantly finally. Besides, the particle distributions also have great changes. As the annealing temperature increases, they increase firstly as a result of precipitation, and then gradually disappear as a result of dissolution. Finally, the effect of annealing temperature on microstructure, texture and hardness evolutions is discussed.

Keywords

Al-Mg-Si-Cu alloy / hardness / microstructure / texture / recrystallization