Recrystallization texture in a cold rolled commercial purity aluminum: on the plausible macro- and micro-mechanisms

In the cold rolled commercial purity aluminum alloy AA1080, the most significant aspect of the recrystallization texture is the strengthening of the Cube {001}〈100〉 component. The increase is primarily attributed to the ‘frequency advantage’ of the Cube grains—i.e. the recrystallized Cube grains are higher in number but not larger in size. In general, Cube grains appear first and the deformed Cube regions have lower stored energies. The average spacing (along normal direction, ND) of the original hot band Cube regions is 450 μm, while average Cube band spacings after 60 and 80% deformations are 195 and 120 μm. Recrystallized Cube grains originate from these deformed Cube bands and an approximate estimation of the nucleation ability (the so-called nucleation factor of Cube or NC) of the Cube bands is obtained from the geometrical relationship AC=NCdC/λC, where AC, dC and λC are the area fraction, average recrystallized Cube grain size and average spacing of the deformed Cube bands, respectively. Irrespective of annealing at 350 or 500°C, approximate NC values are estimated as 0.94 and 0.83 after 60 and 80% deformation. The apparent drop in NC after 80% deformation, in spite of the observation that more of deformed S {231}〈346〉 is found next to deformed Cube, belittles the possible role of ‘micro-growth advantage’ in determining the ‘final’ Cube recrystallization texture.