Annealing of severely plastic deformed materials is expected to produce a good combination of strength and ductility, which has been widely demonstrated in conventional materials. In the present study, high-pressure torsion processed CoCrNi medium entropy alloy consisting of a single face-centered cubic (FCC) phase with a grain size of ~50 nm was subjected to different annealing conditions, and its effect on microstructure and mechanical behavior was investigated. The annealing of high-pressure torsion processed CoCrNi alloy exhibits partial recrystallization and near full recrystallization based on the annealing temperature and time. The samples annealed at 700 °C for 2 min exhibit very fine grain size, a high fraction of low angle grain boundaries, and high kernel average misorientation value, indicating partially recrystallized microstructure. The samples annealed for a longer duration (>2 min) exhibit relatively larger grain size, a low fraction of low angle grain boundaries, and low kernel average misorientation value, indicating nearly full recrystallized microstructure. The annealed samples with different microstructures significantly influence the uniform elongation, tensile strength, and work hardening rate. The sample annealed at 700 °C for 15 min exhibits a remarkable combination of tensile strength (~1090 MPa) and strain to failure (~41%).
Keywords: high-pressure torsion; medium entropy alloy; partial recrystallization; tensile strength.