Microstructural Changes with Annealing of a Nanostructured Al Alloy Severely Plastic Deformed by Four-Layer Stack...

Microstructural changes with annealing of a nanostructured complex aluminum alloy fabricated by 3 cycles of four-layer stack ARB process using different Al alloys were investigated in detail. The four-layer stack ARB process using AA1050, AA5052 and AA6061 alloy sheets was performed up to 3 cycles without a lubricant at room temperature. The sample fabricated by the ARB is a multi-layer aluminum alloy sheet in which the AA1050, AA5052 and AA6061 aluminum alloys are alternately stacked to each other. The layer thickness of each alloy became thinner and elongated to the rolling direction with the number of ARB cycles. The grain size decreased with increasing of the number of ARB cycles, and became about 160 nm in thickness after 3 cycles. The complex Al alloy still showed ultrafine grained microstructure to annealing temperature of 300 °C, but it had a heterogeneous structure containing both the ultrafine grains and the coarse grains due to an occurrence of discontinuous recrystallization after 350 °C.