The influence of ECAP on microstructure evolution of aluminium alloys during in-situ heating in TEM

Abstract

Abstract Twin-roll casting of aluminium alloys produces sheets with high solid-solution supersaturation. During high tempe-rature processing the solid solution decomposes and cubic α-Al(Mn, Fe)Si precipitates form. Processing by equal channel angular pressing introduces new grain boundaries into the material and shifts the precipitation to lower temperatures. In-situ annealing in a transmission electron microscope enables dynamic observation of recovery, precipitation, particle dissolution and grain growth. However, most of the processes observed by in-situ transmission electron microscopy occur at temperatures that are lower than temperatures estimated from specimens annealed conventionally in a furnace.