Development of the ‘‘brass’’ texture component during the hot deformation of Al–6Cu–0.4Zr P.S. Bate * , Y. Huang, F.J. Humphreys Manchester Materials Science Centre, The University of Manchester, Grosvenor Street, Manchester, M1 7HS, UK Received 18 May 2004; received in revised form 27 May 2004; accepted 28 May 2004 Available online 19 June 2004 Abstract Texture and microstructure development during hot plane strain compression of Al–6Cu–0.4Zr has been examined using EBSD. Starting with a random texture in the cast condition, the material developed a typical b-fibre texture during the early stages of plane strain compression at a temperature of 375 °C. At strains higher than about 2, the ‘‘brass’’ texture component, {0 1 1} h211i, began to dominate the texture. The development of such a texture has been observed previously in aluminium alloys, particularly when fine particles effecting Zener pinning of grain boundaries are present. In the present case, measurements indicate that grain boundary migration during deformation was responsible for the development of the strong ‘‘brass’’ texture. Ó 2004 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Texture; Grain growth; Aluminium; Dynamic boundary migration 1. Introduction The crystallographic texture of face centred cubic (FCC) metals following plane strain compression, such as near the mid-plane in flat rolling, is typically con- centrated on orientations lying along a fibre – the b-fibre – between the ‘‘brass’’ orientation, {0 1 1} h211i, and the ‘‘copper’’ orientation, {2 2 5} h554i. In high stacking fault energy metals such as aluminium, the orientation densities along that fibre are relatively uniform. When the stacking fault energy is low, the ‘‘brass’’ component dominates, especially at relatively high strain: a good example of this was given by Pospiech et al. [1] in silver. There has been a significant volume of research on this effect of stacking fault energy, and several potential mechanisms have been proposed. Most of these relate to the effect of mechanical twinning, either directly [2] or indirectly [3]; the tendency for mechanical twinning be- ing higher in low SFE cubic metals. One significant observation is that an increase in the temperature of deformation in low SFE materials will generally reduce the tendency to form a texture dominated by the ‘‘brass’’ component [4,5], which would be expected as mechani- cal twinning is generally less significant at higher temperatures. It is interesting, then, that elevated tem- perature deformation of some aluminium alloys can lead also to strong ‘‘brass’’ textures. This has been mainly observed in aluminium alloys intended for superplastic forming [6], but also in the Al–1Mn–1Mg alloy used for beverage can bodies [7,8]. It is clear that stacking fault energy is highly unlikely to be a factor here, and other mechanisms have been suggested, for example the idea that non-octahedral slip i.e. the operation of slip systems other than {1 1 1} h110i, could be significant at the ele- vated temperatures where the strong ‘‘brass’’ texture develops [9,10]. Another possibility is that migration of grain boundaries could be occurring during hot deformation, leading to a change in the texture. It was noted by Hi- gginson and Bate [11] that broad-front strain-induced boundary migration (SIBM) could help explain a tran- sient increase in the ‘‘brass’’ component during recrys- tallisation of aluminium, and that this might also offer an explanation for the occurrence of the high densities * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-161-200-8842; fax: +44-161-200- 3586. E-mail address: pete.bate@man.ac.uk (P.S. Bate). 1359-6454/$30.00 Ó 2004 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.actamat.2004.05.044 Acta Materialia 52 (2004) 4281–4289 www.actamat-journals.com