Influence of texture and microstructural evolution on ductility and tensile behaviour of annealed Zircaloy-4 processed through swaging

The critical study is focused on improving ductility by maintaining higher strength of swaged Zircaloy-4 through specifically optimized annealing treatment. It has led to evolution of texture to obtain stable (2 (11) over bar0) pyramidal type in the microstructure, enhanced elongation up to similar to 20%. An excellent combination of ductility and strength was achieved through low-strain-swaging followed by annealing optimization, unlike other resource-intensive and conventional SPD techniques. Improvements in mechanical properties, especially ductility enhancement, were substantiated with the detailed and targeted microstructural analysis with EBSD and TEM. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.