Effect of composition on critical (cold working) strain and recrystallised grain size of dilute Al–Fe alloys

Abstract

Abstract Low strain cold deformation and annealing techniques have been applied to establish the effects of composition and heat treatment variables on the recrystallisation behaviour of Al–Fe alloys. The parameters controlling the critical strain required to initiate recrystallisation and the grain size produced by subsequent recrystallisation annealing have been established to be the volume fraction of secondary phases, the eutectic colony size in both as cast and processed material, matrix composition, the initial grain size preceding final cold deformation, the amount of deformation before annealing, and the final annealing temperature. The results derived from the application of the strain annealing test showed that increasing the volume fraction of secondary precipitate phases, the homogenisation and final annealing temperatures, or the eutectic colony size, decreases the critical strain and increases the maximum grain size produced after annealing, but increasing the initial grain size has opposite...