Papers by Keyword: Al Foil

Abstract: Aluminium foil is rolled double-layered during the final rolling pass. When the sheets are later separated, the inside surface is dull and the outside surface is shiny. The matt inner side is characterized by significant surface corrugations which are believed to be a precursor for the initiation of fracture upon a subsequent forming operation. Therefore, understanding of the development of the matt side of Al foil will help to control and, eventually, improve the properties of Al foil. It was the goal of the present study to correlate the development of the matt side with the spatial arrangement of the crystallographic orientations of the foil rolling texture. This approach builds on a recent project to correlate the phenomenon of roping in AA 6xxx alloy sheet for car body applications to the occurrence of band-like clusters of grains with similar crystallographic orientation. Large-scale orientation maps obtained by electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) were input into a visco-plastic self-consistent crystal-plasticity model to analyse the strain anisotropy caused by the spatial distribution of the various rolling texture components. The new model is applied to several Al foils with different characteristics of the matt side.

Abstract: Reflected light optical analysis and Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) analysis have been used to m easure grain sizes in 2D Al foil samples, annealed for different times. There are significant differences in the results of the two techniques. It is shown that in Al it is possible to detect boundaries in optical images down to a misorientation angle of 7-8º. Nevertheless, in most samples the critical angle of easy etching lies above 10º. The observed differences in grain size measurements between optical analysis and EBSD analysis can be largely attributed to three phenomena: (1) individual samples may behave slighty differently due to differences in the effectiveness of etching (2) the grain size is heterogeneous over large areas and (3) the effect of etching is not only a function of misorientation angle but also grain boundary plane. Despite these uncertainties, optical analysis seems to be reliable for analysis of processes in which mainly grain boundaries with misorientation angle of > 10º are involved i.e. grain growth.

Abstract: First results from grain growth experiments in a columnar structured Al foil show several interesting features: (a) the grain size distribution remains heterogeneous even after up to 300 min. annealing and (b) the Von Neumann-Mullins relation is not always satisfied. To clarify the underlying reasons for these features, in-situ heating experiments within a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) were combined with detailed Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) analysis. These show that the movement of boundaries can be strongly heterogeneous. For example, the complete replacement of one grain by a neighbouring grain without significant change of the surrounding grain boundary topology is frequently seen. Experiments show that grain boundary energy and/or mobility are anisotropic both with respect to misorientation and orientation of grain boundary plane. Low energy and/or mobility boundaries are commonly low angle boundaries, twin boundaries and boundaries that form traces to a low index plane of at least one of the adjacent grains. As a consequence the Von Neumann-Mullins relation is not always satisfied.