Institute of Metals Division - Subgrain Growth and Softening in Rolled Aluminum Crystals

The isothermal kinetics (at 200" to 400°C) of subgrain growth and of softening were studied in a 99.997 pct pure Al crystal rolled to 80 pct RA, under conditions where recrystallization did not take place. It was found that the kinetics of subgrain growth and of softening were similar, and that the correlation between subgrain growth and softening was in first approximation independent of the annealing temperature. It has been shown by Heidenreich' by means of electron transmission microscopy and by Hirsch and Kellar2 by means of an X-ray microbeam technique that the crystals of heavily cold-worked polycrystalline aluminum consist of subgrains of approximately 2µ diam, which are slightly disoriented with respect to each other. This substructure is found on cold working at room temperature, without annealing. A preliminary study has been previously published3 of the softening upon annealing at 350°C of a heavily cold-rolled aluminum single crystal. Softening and X-ray line sharpening for such a rolled aluminum crystal were later studied in more detail as a function of annealing time and temperature.4 Perryman5, 6 has studied the recovery of polycrystalline aluminum after cold rolling. By means of phase contrast microscopy he found that the subgrain size increases with the annealing temperature but does not alter very much with annealing time at a given temperature. In the present work further study was made of softening as a function of annealing time and temperature and subgrain sizes were determined by two different techniques in an attempt to find any correlation that may exist between softening and subgrain growth. Subgrain size measurements were made both by the X-ray microbeam technique and by transmission electron microscopy. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE For the X-ray studies specimens were cut from