Annealing-Induced Grain Rotation In Ultrafine-Grained Aluminum Alloy

Abstract

Results of in situ transmission electron microscopic studies of annealing-induced evolution of grain boundary misorientations in ultrafine-grained aluminum alloy Al-4%Cu-0.5%Zr (wt.%) processed by high pressure torsion are presented. An experimental procedure based on the single reflection technique was applied for the measurements of orientations of individual grains before and after annealing that allowed for determining misorientations between them. The measurements revealed that relaxation processes occurring in non-equilibrium grain boundaries during short-time annealing are accompanied by a change of grain boundary misorientations, grain rotation, grain migration as well as grain growth. Obtained results were compared with theoretical studies considering the kinetics of grain rotation in discrete-dislocation as well as continuum approaches.