Effect of extended recovery on the recrystallization characteristics of flash-annealed strip cast 3004 aluminum alloy

Abstract Complementary metallography, hardness, electrical resistivity, tensile testing, and x-ray pole figure determinations were used to study the effect of a low-temperature precipitate on the recovered substructure and on the flash-annealed, recrystallized grains of aluminum alloy AA 3004, which was deformed and recovered for 3913 h. These studies show that an increase in the density of a low-temperature precipitate subsequently determines the degree of enlargement of the flash-annealed, recrystallized grains. Also, the increased presence of the low-temperature precipitate intensifies the deformation texture, gives rise to complex recrystallization textures, and induces limited plasticity but does not act as an effective barrier to dislocation motion. The commercially undesirable elongated grain structures obtained in this study result primarily from the nucleation of these grains around the elongated intermetallic particles.