Microstructural evolution during annealing of 5052 Al alloy deformed at cryogenic temperature

The activation energy for recovery and recrystallization was calculated using DSC data. The annealing below 250 degrees C resulted in the bimodal grain size distribution, while that above 300 degrees C resulted in the uniform distribution of coarse grains. The formation of a bimodal microstructure would be responsible for the good combination of uniform elongation and tensile strength. Additionally, the little variation of hardness for different annealing time at 300 degrees C also indicated that mechanical properties of deformed and annealed 5052 Al alloy were significantly influenced by the volume fraction of recrystallized grains rather than the coarsening of recrystallized grains.