To clarify the microstructure, grain size, and recrystallization behavior during different annealing processes with controlled heating rates, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of residual deformation energy after cold rolling and critical heating rate on cubic texture components, and grain growth behavior of aluminum plate, which was subjected to severe deformation. The experimental results revealed that the stored energy can be inferred from a calculation that fast annealing (FA) for 30 s was 2.2 times as large as slow annealing (SA) at 320 °C, which provided the driving force for grain growth during subsequent heating and resulted in a significant coarsening of grains in the FA process. In contrast, the intensity of cubic texture in SA was significantly higher than that in the FA process. A critical heating rate of 50 °C/min had been obtained to produce a homogeneous microstructure and strong cubic texture during the annealing processes with controlled heating rates and was verified by experiment. The relationship of Δηsur > 0.02ηb was as a criterion used to determine whether abnormal grain growth happened in aluminum foil, while the grain size exceeded the thickness of aluminum foil by examined calculation.
Keywords: critical heating rate; grain growth behavior; residual deformation energy.