Microstructure and texture of eutectic Al-Si alloy with multiple cold rolling and heat treatment

Al-12.5 wt% Si alloy is an eutectic alloys. Eutectic Si particles are very hard and brittle. When Al-12.5 wt% Si alloy is cold rolled, the hard and brittle eutectic Si particles are broken. During the heat treatment, these broken eutectic Si particles will become a spherical shape in the Al-Si alloy. The spheroidized Si particles in eutectic Al-Si alloy are very important for improving the mechanical properties. There area lot of processing methods for spheroidization of Si particles in Al-12.5 Wt% Si alloy. In this study, we used the multiple cold rolling and heat treatment method to improve the mechanical properties of Al-12.5 wt% Si alloy by a spheroidization of Si particles. The variations of microstructures, mechanical properties and textures were investigated after multiple cold rolling and heat treatments, respectively. Eutectic Si particles in microstructure could be spheroidized and distributed uniformly after multiple cold rolling and heat treatments. The ultimate tensile strength, hardness and elongation of Al-12.5 wt% Si alloy were increased with increasing the number of cold rolling and heat treatments. Al component in M-12.5 wt% Si alloy under multiple cold rolling and heat treating shows a near random texture and the Si component shows (122) texture at 350degreesC heat treatment and (013) texture at 550degreesC heat treatment.