Effect of Stacking Sequence on Mechanical Properties and Microstructural Features within Al/Cu Laminates

The study presents a method to prepare Al/Cu laminated conductors featuring two different stacking sequences using rotary swaging, a method of intensive plastic deformation. The primary focus of the work was to perform detailed characterization of the effects of room temperature swaging on the development of microstructures, including the Al/Cu interfaces, and internal misorientations pointed to the presence of residual stress within the laminates. The results revealed that both the Al and Cu components of the final laminates with 5 mm in diameter featured fine, more or less equiaxed, grains with no dominating preferential texture orientations (the maximum observed texture intensity was 2.3 × random for the Cu components of both the laminates). This fact points to the development of dynamic restoration processes during swaging. The analyses of misorientations within the grains showed that residual stress was locally present primarily in the Cu components. The Al components did not feature a substantial presence of misorientations, which confirms the dynamic recrystallization. Tensile testing revealed that the laminates with both the designed stacking sequences exhibited comparable UTS (ultimate tensile strength) of almost 280 MPa. However, notable differences were observed with regard to the plasticity (~3.5% compared to less than 1%). The laminate consisting of Al sheath and Cu wires exhibited very low plasticity as a result of significant work hardening of Al; this hypothesis was also confirmed with microhardness measurements. Observations of the interfaces confirmed satisfactory bonding of both the metallic components.