Relationship among grain size, texture and mechanical properties of aluminums with different particle distributions

Relationship among grain size, texture and mechanical properties of aluminums with different particle distributions was investigated systematically by microstructure characterization, texture measurement and tensile test in the present study. The results reveal that there is a close relationship among grain size, texture and mechanical properties. For high-purity aluminum without particle, it is easy to result in the increase of grain size. As grain size increases, the initial texture Cube {001}<100> could become strong at first, and then transforms to other stronger texture components {011}<133> and {013}<293>. Furthermore, the strengths and elongation decrease due to the coarse grain structure, the plastic strain ratio r decreases and planar anisotropy Δr (absolute value) increases. For AlMgSiCu alloy with a large number of particles, it is difficult to make the grains grow. With increasing grain size, the texture consisting of CubeND {001}<310>, Goss {110}<001> and P {011}<122> orientations is slightly enhanced at first, and then transforms to another texture including CubeRD {310}<001> and H {001}<110> orientations with a slight change in volume fraction. In addition, the strengths increase at first, and then remain constant, whereas elongation, r and Δr values are almost kept unchanged. In comparison with high-purity aluminum, AlMgSiCu alloy possesses the higher r and lower Δr values. In general, grain size plays an important role in texture development, not depending on whether the aluminum has particles, but particles could retard the texture transformation. Finally, variation of texture with grain size is explained by recrystallization progress.