Evolution of Microstructure, Texture, and Hardness in an Al-Cu-Mg Alloy during Annealing

Evolution of microstructure, texture, and hardness of the Al-Cu-Mg alloy was investigated by using scanning electron microscopy, electron backscatter diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and x-ray diffraction. Results have shown that the hardness and Brass texture intensity of the Al-Cu-Mg alloy can be enhanced during the annealing process at 240-385 °C. The hardness enhancement of the alloy can be attributed to the fine-grain strengthening; the enhancement of the Brass texture intensity of the alloy is related to the polygonization of the deformed grains with Brass orientation. In addition, the evolution path of the Brass texture evolving into recrystallization texture during annealing can be summarized as follows: Brass texture → Goss texture → R-Goss texture → Cube texture.