The application of EBSD to the study of substructural development in a cold rolled single-phase aluminium alloy

Scanning electron microscopy and high resolution electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) have been used to study substructural development during cold rolling of a single-phase Al–0.1 Mg alloy, the use of EBSD enabling more detailed quantitative measurements to be made than are possible with the transmission electron microscope (TEM). At low strains, bands of elongated cells, aligned at approximately 35° to rolling direction are formed. As the applied strain was increased, intersecting thinner and more widely spaced bands form within many grains, flow becomes localised within these new bands and they develop into microshear bands, which shear the original elongated cell structures. The changes in the scale of the microstructural features, the development of misorientations of the various types of low angle boundary and the alignment of the features to the rolling plane have been measured as a function of strain. The results are compared with previous TEM investigations of deformed aluminium, and a qualitative model of the microstructural evolution is proposed.