Microstructural Evolution during Annealing of 5052 Al Alloy Deformed at Cryogenic Temperature

Abstract

The activation energy for recovery and recrystallization was calculated using DSC data. The annealing below 250°C resulted in the bimodal grain size distribution, while that above 300°C resulted in the uniform distribution of coarse grains. The formation of a bimodal microstructure would be responsible for the good combination of uniform elongation and tensile strength. Additionally, the little variation of hardness for different annealing time at 300°C also indicated that mechanical properties of deformed and annealed 5052 Al alloy were significantly influenced by the volume fraction of recrystallized grains rather than the coarsening of recrystallized grains.