Microtexture evolution during annealing and superplastic deformation of Al-5 pct Ca-5 pct Zn

The microtexture and grain boundary misorientation distributions (i.e., mesotexture) of the superplastic alloy Al-5 pct Ca-5 pct Zn have been investigated in the as-processed condition, after annealing at 520 °C (for times ranging from 7 minutes to 90 hours) and after tensile straining in the transverse direction (TD). Three different superplastic straining conditions were considered: 550 °C/10−2 s−1, 550 °C/10−1 s−1, and 400 °C/10−2 s−1. Microtexture data were obtained by means of computer-aided electron backscatter diffraction analysis methods. The retention of the deformation texture of the as-received material and the development of an increasingly bimodal grain boundary misorientation distribution following static annealing are consistent with the occurrence of recovery and continuous recrystallization. During superplastic straining, deformation texture components are also retained, but with a change in the grain boundary misorientation distribution toward random, indicating that grain switching occurs during grain boundary sliding (GBS). At the midlayer, however, a change from an initial texture component near the Cu-type texture component toward the Brass texture component, {011}〈211〉, was observed even as the misorientation distribution became more random. This change in texture component is associated with the occurrence of single slip during superplastic flow.