Effects of microstructure, texture evolution and strengthening mechanisms on mechanical properties of 3003 aluminum alloy during cryogenic rolling

Abstract The effects of microstructure, texture evolution and strengthening mechanisms on mechanical properties of 3003 aluminum alloy during cryogenic rolling (CR) and room temperature rolling (RTR) processing were investigated by electron backscatter diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The results show that the CR processing can significantly decrease the size of sub-grains and second-phase particles, and increase the dislocation density of the 3003 aluminum alloy. During the CR and RTR processing, the initial Cube and R-Cube textures are gradually rotated into the β-fiber texture. The CR processing can obviously delay the texture evolution from initial Cube texture to β-fiber texture during rolling. A significant enhancement in the yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and elongation of the 3003 aluminum alloy after the CR processing is obtained comparing with the RTR processing. This can be explained by the contribution of dislocation strengthening and grain refinement strengthening.