Microstructure and properties of ultrafine grained structure of Cu-Zn-Si alloy fabricated by heavy cold rolling

Cu-18.2Zn-1.5Si-0.25Fe (mass%) alloy was heavily cold rolled. Ultrafine grained (UFGed) structure, containing a mixture of lamellar and mechanical twins, was easily and homogeneously formed. The average grain size was approximately 100 nm. The as-rolled sample showed quite high ultimate tensile strength (UTS) over 1 GPa. The UTS was higher than those obtained by multi directional forging. When the samples were annealed at relatively low temperatures between 553 K and 653 K, they showed slight hardening followed by large softening due to occurrence of static recrystallization (SRX). Annealing of UFGed structure at relatively low temperature of around 0.4 Tm caused extensive SRX that, in turn, induces ultrafine RXed grained structure. The grain size of the RXed sample was as fine as 200 nm. Although the annealing induced recovery of ductility while UTS gradually reduces, UTS over 1 GPa with ductility of 15 % were attained. The RXed grains mainly contained ultrafine annealing twins. Therefore, UFGed structure and superior mechanical properties could be achieved by a simple process of cold rolling, i.e., without severe plastic deformation.