Microstructural and Mechanical Analysis of an 1100 Aluminum Alloy Processed by Repetitive Corrugation and Straightening

Abstract

Repetitive corrugation and straightening (RCS) is a method of severe plastic deformation that improves the mechanical properties in sheets of pure metals and alloys. In the present study, an A1100 alloy was processed by RCS, with a new die design. In order to determine the mechanical behavior and the texture evolution after the deformation process, sheets of A1100 alloy underwent 1, 3, and 6 RCS passes. X-ray diffraction analysis was employed to analyzing the crystallographic texture. Tensile and hardness tests were carried out to obtain the mechanical evolution of such properties. The results indicated that there was a noticeable increase (~55%) in the tensile strength after 6 RCS passes in comparison with the annealed samples. At difference of the reported with other die geometries, the stress-strain profile exhibited a large plastic plateau. As the appearance and intensity of a new texture, i.e. Goss texture (110) [001] increased, the intensity of cube texture decreased slightly, being associated to the RCS process.