Investigation of thermal stability of the structure and properties of ultra-fine-grained copper alloys obtained by ECAP

Abstract

Abstract The paper describes the results of experimental studies of the effect of small chromium additives on the temperature of recrystallization (TR) of ultrafine-grained (UFG) copper obtained by equal channel angular pressing. Our investigation shows that the process of recrystallization in UFG CuCr copper alloys has a three-stage character - anomalous grain growth at annealing temperatures not exceeding the temperature of chromium particles(Tann<T1), “fixation” of grain boundaries by the released particles (T1⩽Tann<T2), and regular grain growth at higher temperatures (Tann⩾T2), when grain boundaries “detach” from particles of the second stage. It also shows that an increase in the chromium concentration in UFG copper by 0.3-0.5wt.% leads to a decrease in the temperature of the onset of the migration of grain boundaries T1 in the UFG copper by 40-60°C and an increase in temperature T2 to ∼ 400°C. We discovered that low-temperature pre-recrystallization annealing contributes to an increase in the thermal stability of the mechanical properties of CuCr alloys.