Earing Prediction of Unidirectionally and Cross-rolled, Annealed AW-5056 Al Sheets from {h00} Pole Figures

Abstract

Abstract Earing of deep drawn cups is an effective measure of plastic anisotropy. It is the result of crystallographic anisotropy, i.e. texture. There are several methods to predict earing, but all of these methods are rather complex. Furthermore, above a certain sheet thickness, deep drawing cannot be performed, and prediction methods fail since they are usually valid within a certain sheet thickness range. A new, simple method has been proposed to predict earing. Besides simplicity, another major benefit of the method is that it can be applied to a wide range of sheet thicknesses. The method has been previously applied for unidirectionally rolled and recrystallized and cross-rolled Al sheets. In the present manuscript, the proposed method is applied on the AW-5056 type, unidirectionally and cross-rolled, then annealed Al sheets having very weak (close to random) structure. It is shown that for such samples, the method predicts negligible earing. It is also revealed that for the 5056 type Al alloy, the differences in texture and earing between unidirectionally and cross-rolled samples become so small after annealing, that the benefit of cross rolling is negligible.