Evolution of microstructure and texture during recovery and recrystallization in heavily rolled aluminum

The annealing behavior of nanostructured aluminum AA1050 prepared by cold rolling to an ultrahigh strain (ε_vM = 6.4) has been investigated using both transmission electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction techniques, paying particular attention to changes in microstructure and texture during recovery and their influence on subsequent recrystallization. It is found that coarsening of lamellar structures during recovery can occur via triple junction motion, and that this process can modify the proportion of different boundary types and texture components compared to those in the cold rolled material. Additionally, the heavily deformed material is characterized by different textures and different spatial arrangements of rolling texture components in the center and subsurface. It is found that changes in the misorientation distribution and texture during coarsening are greatly affected by the initial spatial distribution of crystallographic orientations. In particular, the reduction in the fraction of high angle boundaries observed during recovery is much more pronounced in the subsurface layers than in the center layer. The initial through-thickness heterogeneity is thus greatly enhanced during recovery, which leads to significant differences in recrystallized microstructure and texture in the different layers.