An EBSD analysis of a commercial immiscible Cu43%Cr alloy after high-pressure torsion processing and annealing

ABSTRACT

The influence of high-pressure torsion (HPT) and annealing on microstructure, texture and thermal stability of an immiscible composite Cu43%Cr alloy was studied using electron backscatter diffraction, X-ray diffraction and microhardness measurements. As-received alloy samples were subjected to HPT and subsequent annealing treatment in the range of 210–850°C for 1 h in order to develop ultrafine-grained (UFG) microstructures and highlight their thermal stability. The Cu and Cr grains were refined to ∼0.45 and ∼0.39 µm, respectively and exhibited equiaxed morphology. The crystallographic texture was of shear type in both Cu and Cr with the domination of C and F orientations, respectively. The UFG microstructure and texture were retained in the Cu43%Cr alloy up to 850°C. The global results show that the immiscible composite Cu43%Cr alloy exhibits a high thermal stability up to 850°C. The evolution of the microstructure, texture and thermal stability of the UFG Cu43%Cr alloy was compared to published data and available models.

KEYWORDS:

• CuCr alloy
• high-pressure torsion
• annealing
• microstructure
• texture
• thermal stability

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Dr. Christophe Carrie from PLANSEE (Reutte, Austria) for supplying the Cu43%Cr alloy.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by European Research Council under ERC Grant Agreement No. 267464-SPDMETALS (TGL).