j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 3 3 7 e3 3 4 8

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journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmrt

Original Article

Microstructure and mechanical properties of

powder metallurgy 2024 aluminum alloy during
cold rolling

Tao Wang, Yufeng Huang***, Yunzhu Ma**, Lei Wu, Huanyuan Yan,
Chao Liu*, Yang Liu, Bing Liu, Wensheng Liu
National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on High-strength Structural Materials, Central South University,
Changsha 410083, PR China

article info abstract

Article history: To improve the low compactness and limited size of powder metallurgy (P/M) aluminum
Received 27 August 2021 alloy materials, cold rolling deformation on P/M aluminum alloy was carried out in this work.
Accepted 27 September 2021 And the microstructure and mechanical properties of P/M aluminum alloy during cold rolling
Available online 29 September 2021 were investigated from multi-dimensional and multi-scale perspectives. The results indicate
that the microstructure gradually evolved from the original equiaxial structure to the fiber
Keywords: structure after cold rolling. Also, the grain size decreased with an increase in cumulative
2024 aluminum alloy reductions. When the cumulative reduction was increased from 0 to 80%, the relative density
Powder metallurgy and tensile strength of the samples increased from 98.31% to 221.94 MPa to 99.04% and
Cold rolling 302.88 MPa, respectively. On this basis, the synergetic effect of microstructure densification
Microstructure and deformation strengthening of the P/M 2024 Al alloy during cold rolling was investigated.
Mechanical properties The improved mechanical properties mainly resulted from the combined effects of the
increased microstructural compactness and deformation strengthening.
© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

lightweight materials in the aerospace field [4e6]. However, P/

1. Introduction
Powder metallurgy (P/M) aluminum alloy has been rapidly
developed and widely used in recent years due to its unique
advantages such as fine microstructure, non-segregation, and
near-net forming [1e3]. Especially, the use of P/M Al alloys in
the automotive and aerospace fields has increased rapidly
with the requirements of energy savings and emission re-
ductions in the automotive industry and the demand for
M Al alloys also have some problems, such as low compact-
ness and poor mechanical properties. These problems limit
the wide application of P/M Al alloys [7]. Therefore, much
research attention is focused on solving these problems.
From the progress of current research, the methods to
improve the compactness, strength, and plasticity of P/M Al
alloys are mainly as follows: (a) adding alloy elements [8,9]
and (b) plastic deformation such as extruding, forging, and

* Corresponding author.
** Corresponding author.
*** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: huangyufeng@csu.edu.cn (C. Liu), zhuzipm@csu.edu.cn (Y. Ma), mseliuchao@csu.edu.cn (Y. Huang).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2021.09.120
2238-7854/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
3338 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 3 3 7 e3 3 4 8
rolling [10e12]. Therein, the plastic deformation is most
effective method to improve the microstructure and me-
chanical properties of materials, which has been widely
studied and applied [13]. Khalaj et al. investigated the effects
of strain rate and temperature on the deformation behavior of
equal-channel angular pressed AlMg6 alloy [14]. Pouraliakbar
et al. studied the combined effect of heat treatment and roll-
ing on pre-strain and severe plastic deformation aluminum
alloy sheets [15].
In recent years, the plastic deformation is also widely used
in powder metallurgy materials. Sweet et al. [16] studied the
evolution of the microstructure of 2xxx series aluminum
powder metallurgical alloys during hot upset forging. The re-
sults showed that the density of the alloy remained the same
as the theoretical density after hot upset forging, and the
tensile ductility of the alloy increased by a factor of four. Mo
et al. [17] used semi-solid powder rolling to prepare a 10% B4C-
AA2024 composite strip and studied the influence that tem-
perature has on the evolution of the microstructure, Brinell
hardness, and tensile strength of the B4C-AA2024 composite
strip. Bhattacharjee et al. [18e20] conducted cold rolling and
annealing treatments on pure Ni, Ni-5 at.% W, and Ni-5 at.%
Mo alloys prepared via powder metallurgy and investigated
the effects that rolling and annealing processes have on the
cube texture and recrystallization texture of the three alloys.
Inspired by this and referring to the rolling process of as-
cast aluminum alloy [16,21], it is proposed to combine the
powder metallurgy process with rolling process to prepare P/
M aluminum alloy material with high compactness and high
strength. The process was less complicated, and thus, the
alloy can be used in more applications than alloys obtained
with the powder direct rolling method [22]. Compared to al-
loys produced via hot rolling, this alloy has an improved sur-
face quality, and the thickness of the products can be precisely
controlled when this technique is used; this technique also
has low energy consumption [23]. However, little has been
reported on the influence that cold rolling has on the micro-
structure and properties of the P/M Al alloy.
In view of this, the cold rolling for the P/M 2024 aluminum
alloy was carried out in this work. The microstructure and
mechanical properties of P/M 2024 aluminum alloy during
cold rolling were systematically investigated by EBSD and
TEM. The deformation mechanism of the P/M Al alloy during
cold rolling was discussed. The advantage of this work lies in
the combination of powder metallurgy and rolling technology,
which not only improves the microstructure compactness and
Fig. 1 e The morphology (a) and size distributions (b) of 2024 aluminum alloy powder.
mechanical properties of P/M aluminum alloy, but also breaks
through the size limit of P/M materials.
2. Experimental
2.1. Raw materials
The raw materials used in this work were commercially
available atomized 2024 aluminum alloy powders (Changsha
Tianjiu Metal Materials Co., Ltd., China.). The morphologies
and size distribution of the powders are presented in Fig. 1.
The chemical composition is given in Table 1.
2.2. Experimental procedure
In this work, the standard “press and sinter” process was used.
Fig. 2 illustrates the flow chart with the detailed sintering and
rolling parameters. Before the experiments, the 2024
aluminum alloy powders were dried in a vacuum drying oven
at a temperature of 60
C for 4 h to reduce the residual oxygen
content and the humidity of the powder. The powders were
then uniaxially compacted under 400 MPa in a steel die to
produce a green compact. A VVP-60 high vacuum precision
vacuum hot-press furnace was used to sinter the green
compact at 550
C, under 10 MPa, and with a holding time of
120 min. The thickness of the obtained sintered compact was
2.3 mm and used as the initial material for cold rolling
(denoted as CR-0). Before cold rolling, the sintered compact
was annealed to eliminate residual stresses and defects dur-
ing hot-press sintering. According to the literature and pre-
vious research [24e26], it the annealing process was chosen to
be at a temperature of 420
C for 60 min. The sintered 2024
aluminum alloy was then cold rolled. Because of the poor
plasticity of the sintered alloy, the cold rolling process of the
sintered compact adopted the one cold rolling þ intermediate
annealing approach to avoid cracking during cold rolling. The
reduction per pass was less than 5%. In other words, the
sample was cold-rolled one time and then intermediate
Table 1 e Chemical elemental composition of 2024
aluminum alloy powder.
Element Mg Cu Fe Mn Zn Si Al
wt.% 1.27 3.99 0.18 0.56 0.30 0.32 Balance
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 3 3 7 e3 3 4 8 3339

Fig. 2 e Flow chart of the P/M 2024 Al alloy subjected to cold rolling with detailed process parameters.

annealed (annealing process is 420
C  60 min); it was
then cold-rolled one time and then annealed. This cycle was
continued until the sample was cold-rolled to the target
thickness. Finally, the microstructure and properties of the
samples with cold rolling cumulative reductions of 20%, 60%,
and 80% (marked as CR-20, CR-60, and CR-80, respectively)
were analyzed. The substance exhibited a smoother and more
gleaming surface, as seen in the picture of the ultimate
colderolled samples with different reductions that is shown
in the final image of the flow chart in Fig. 2.
The microstructural features were examined using an op-
tical microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM) equip-
ped with an energy dispersive spectroscope (EDS), and
transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The texture of the
samples was identified using electron backscattered diffrac-
tion (EBSD). X-ray diffraction (XRD) with Cu Ka radiation was
used to analyze the phase characteristics. The densities of the
samples were measured using the Archimedes method. Each
sample was tested five times, and the results were averaged. A
Vickers hardness tester was used to test the hardness of the
samples. Five measurements were made in different areas of
each sample, and the average value was taken. The tensile
strength was tested using an Instron 3369-type mechanical
testing machine. Three tensile samples were tested under each
process, and the average value was calculated. According to the
GBT228-2002 standard, tensile specimens were machined from
the rolled sheets along the rolling direction (RD).
3. Results
3.1. Microstructure characteristics of 2024 Al P/M alloy
Fig. 3 shows the microstructure of the longitudinal section of
the as-sintered alloy after hot-pressing and sintering as
observed using an optical microscope (OM) and a scanning
electron microscope (SEM). As seen in Fig. 3a, the P/M 2024 Al
alloy exhibits a typical equiaxed grain structure, and the
powder particle boundary is clearly visible. As seen in Fig. 3b, a
phase with a large number of white precipitates was observed
in the powder particle interior and powder particle bound-
aries. The white precipitates at the powder particle bound-
aries were relatively coarse, and they were distributed in a
continuous band along the powder particle boundaries.
Meanwhile, there were fine pores at the powder particle
boundaries. The white precipitates that were inside the
powder particles were very small and uniformly distributed in
a dot shape.

Fig. 3 e OM image (a) and SEM micrograph (b) of the longitudinal section of the P/M 2024 Al alloy after hot-press sintering.
3340 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 3 3 7 e3 3 4 8

Fig. 4 e EBSD measurements of the P/M 2024 Al alloy after hot-press sintering: (a) IPF [001] maps; (b) number fraction vs.
misorientation chart; (c) frequency vs. grain size chart.

Fig. 4 shows the microstructural characteristics of the
longitudinal section of the 2024 aluminum powder metallurgy
alloy after hot-press sintering, as detected by EBSD. The
different color contrasts (in the web version) in the IPF maps in
Fig. 4a correspond to different grain orientations. As seen in
Fig. 4a, IPF-maps ([001]-inverse pole figure) clearly show the
random orientation distribution of each grain in the 2024
aluminum powder metallurgy alloy. Also, it can be observed
that the material exhibits an equiaxed polygonal-type grain
structure. The red and green bars (in the web version) in the
bar graph (Fig. 4b) indicate high angle grain boundaries (15
)
and low angle grain boundaries (1.5e15
), respectively; a ma-
jority of the boundaries are higheangle grain boundaries, ac-
counting for about 90% of the total that was observed. The
overall average grain size (dm) was 26.97 mm, as shown in
Fig. 4c; this as computed according to the areaebased aver-
aging method, and the corresponding distribution of the grain
sizes generally had a Gaussian distribution [27].
3.2. Microstructure and properties of 2024 Al P/M alloy
alloys after cold rolling
3.2.1. Microstructure
To explore the microstructural characteristics of the as-
sintered alloy during cold rolling, the microstructures of
samples with accumulated reduction rates of 20%, 60%, and
80% after cold rolling were observed using an optical micro-
scope in the plane of the rolling direction (RD) and in normal

Fig. 5 e Optical micrographs of the P/M 2024 Al alloy with different reductions after cold rolling: (a) CR-20; (b) CR-60; (c) CR-80.
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 3 3 7 e3 3 4 8
Fig. 6 e SEM micrographs of the P/M 2024 Al alloy with different reductions after cold rolling: (a) CR-20; (b) CR-60; (c) CR-80.
direction (ND); the results are shown in Fig. 5. As seen in
Fig. 5a, the compactness of the structure of the CR-20 sample
was significantly increased compared to the microstructure of
the sintered compact in Fig. 3a. Careful observation of the
grain shape of CR-20 shows that most of the grains have a
small amount of elongation along the rolling direction, and
the grains were ellipsoidal. When the cumulative reduction
reached 60%, the microstructure of the CR-60 sample in Fig. 5b
changed significantly. The grains were significantly elongated
along the RD direction, and the shape was a long strip. When
the cumulative reduction was further increased, the CR-80
sample formed a long fiber-like microstructure along the RD
direction, as seen in Fig. 5c.
Fig. 6 displays SEM micrographs of the P/M 2024 Al alloy
with different cumulative reductions. Compared to the SEM
micrograph of the sintered compact (Fig. 3b), the morphology
and distribution of the white precipitated phases in the sam-
ple also changed significantly after cold rolling. In the CR-20
sample (Fig. 6a), the precipitated phases were coarse and
irregularly shaped and were still clustered and distributed at
the powder particle boundaries; however, they showed a
discontinuous point-like distribution. As shown in Fig. 6b and
c, the precipitated phases in the CR-60 and CR-80 samples
became gradually uniformly distributed in the matrix with an
increase in the cumulative reduction, and the morphology
gradually became spherical. Moreover, the size distribution of
the precipitated phase gradually decreased from CR-20 to CR-
80. According to the literature [28e30], the redistribution of
precipitates was mainly induced by plastic deformation.
Moreover, from the perspective of crystallography and the
atomic level, Feng et al. [31], believe that dislocation activities
induced precipitate dissolution and promoted solute diffusion
were responsible for the redistribution of the precipitate and
solute. In this work, the changes in the morphology and dis-
tribution of precipitates in the samples after cold rolling are
mainly attributed to the following aspects: First, during the
cold rolling process, the interaction between the matrix and
the precipitates generates shear stress. The second aspect is
3341
dislocation movement. The third aspect is that alternating the
rolling and intermediate annealing cause the precipitated
phases to dissolve and precipitate.
3.2.2. Properties
Fig. 7 shows the relative density, Vickers hardness, and tensile
strength of the 2024 aluminum alloy powder metallurgy alloy
before and after cold rolling. As seen in Fig. 7a, the relative
density of the P/M 2024 Al alloy (CR-0) was 98.31%. After cold
rolling, the relative density gradually increased with an in-
crease in the cold rolling reduction. When the cold rolling
reduction was 80%, the relative density approached the
theoretical density, reaching 99.04%. The increase in the
relative density of the sample occurred mainly because the
pores in the matrix were eliminated and the compactness of
the microstructure increased during the plastic deformation
process. Obviously, the relative density of the sample after
heavily cold-rolled still did not reach 100%, and this may be
related to the absence of the sleeve limit in the cold rolling
process.
As seen from the Vickers hardness data for the samples in
Fig. 7b, the hardness value gradually increased from 75.32 HV
to 85.86 HV from CR-0 to CR-80. Obviously, compared to CR-0,
the Vickers hardness of the sample after accumulative cold
rolling increased and increased with an increase in accumu-
lative reductions. With an increase in cumulative reduction,
the increase in the Vickers hardness of the sample was mainly
a result of the work hardening phenomenon of the material
after cold rolling [32e34]. Also, the compactness of the
microstructure of the sample also increased with an increase
in reduction [35,36].
As seen from the tensile strength data in Fig. 7c, the tensile
strength of the sample first decreased and then significantly
increased from CR-0 to CR-80. The tensile strength of the as-
sintered alloy was 221.94 MPa. However, when the cumula-
tive reduction was 20%, the tensile strength of the CR-20
specimen decreased to 194.44 MPa. Then, when the cumula-
tive reduction reached 60% and 80%, the tensile strength of
3342 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 3 3 7 e3 3 4 8
Fig. 7 e Relative density (a), Vickers hardness and elongation (b) and tensile strength with loading direction parallel to RD (c)
of the P/M 2024 Al alloy before and after cold rolling.
the sample increased significantly, reaching 270.83 MPa and
302.88 MPa, respectively. The strength reduction of the CR-20
samples was mainly because the grain deformation was not
synchronous during the early stage of cold rolling. Also, the
grains were mainly elastically deformed, and this caused the
sintering neck between the particles in the sintered alloy to
break, which reduces its strength. However, with an increase
in the cumulative reduction, grains underwent plastic defor-
mation, and the contact surface between grains increased.
Under the combined action of work hardening and phase
precipitation, the tensile strength of the samples increased
[37,38]. In addition, the variation trend of the elongation of the
sample (Fig. 7b) shows that the elongation of the sample
gradually decreased with an increase in the cumulative
reduction. This trend is the opposite of those for hardness and
tensile strength. This is mainly because of the work hardening
effect that is caused by cold rolling.
From the tensile fracture morphology shown in Fig. 7c, it is
seen that the fracture surface of the as-sintered alloy has
steps and cleavage planes, and these indicate brittle inter-
granular fracture. The CR-20 sample has secondary cracks in
the fracture surface, and these also indicate that cracks
occurred locally between particles in the early stage of rolling.
The fracture of the CR-60 sample has both dimples and
cleavage planes, which is a mixture of cleavage and quasi-
cleavage fracture.
In summary, the mechanical properties of the sintered
2024 aluminum alloy were significantly improved after heavy
cold rolling. Compared to the as-cast 2024 aluminum alloy, the
strength of the sintered alloy after heavy cold rolling was
significantly higher than that of the cast alloy O state but
slightly lower than that of the cast alloy T3, T4, and other heat
treatment states [39]. Therefore, in subsequent work, the heat
treatment process of the cold-rolled P/M 2024 Al alloy can be
studied to further improve its mechanical properties.
4. Discussion
4.1. Microstructure and phase structures evolution
Fig. 8 shows EDS results and XRD patterns of the P/M 2024 Al
alloy after cold rolling. The EDS results of the CR-20 sample
(Fig. 8a and b) show that the compositions of the white
precipitated phases in the grain boundary and inside were
basically the same; specifically, the mainly contained Al, Cu,
and Mg. On the basis of the element ratio, it is speculated that
this phase may Al2CuMg. As seen from the XRD patterns of the
samples before and after cold rolling in Fig. 8c, the precipi-
tated phases in the CR-0 sample were mainly Al2CuMg and
Mg2Si, and the diffraction peak intensity of the precipitated
phase was very weak. As the number of diffraction peaks of
the Al2CuMg phase increased in the CR-60 and CR-80 samples,
the MnAl6 phase appeared. Moreover, from CR-20 to CR-80,
the intensity of the diffraction peak of the precipitated
phase gradually increased. This indicates that the content of
the second phase in the matrix increased with an increase in
the cumulative reductions. According to the literature [40], the
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 3 3 7 e3 3 4 8 3343

Fig. 8 e SEM micrographs (a), EDS results (b), and XRD patterns (b) of the P/M 2024 Al alloy after cold rolling.

combination of the cold rolling and intermediate annealing Fig. 9 shows the changes in the microstructure of samples
work induce a large amount of second phase precipitation, with different rolling reductions at the scale of the TEM. It is
and this is considered to be responsible for the increase in the clear from Fig. 9a and b that after cold rolling, a small amount
content of the second phase after cold rolling. of dislocation lines appeared in the CR-20 sample, and there

Fig. 9 e TEM micrographs of the P/M 2024 Al alloy with different reductions after cold rolling: (a, b) CR-20; (c, d) CR-60; (e, f)
CR-80; (f) HRTEM images.
3344 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 3 3 7 e3 3 4 8

was a distribution of aggregated secondary-phase particles.
The selected area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern of the
precipitated phase (Fig. 9b) shows a precipitated phase was
the Al2CuMg phase [41]. With an increase in the cumulative
reduction, a large number of dislocations appeared in the CR-
60 sample (Fig. 9c), and a dislocation pile-up and dislocation
tangle occurred around the secondary-phase particles and in
the local area. Many subgrains formed because of the increase
in dislocation density and interaction [42]. The interaction
between the dislocation line and the secondary-phase parti-
cles can be clearly seen in Fig. 9d. Meanwhile, the dislocation
pile-up prevents the grains from continuing to slip, and this
increases the deformation resistance and reduces the plas-
ticity of the sample [43]. Therefore, it is necessary to anneal
the sample to restore its plasticity and reduce the deformation
resistance for subsequent cold rolling. After intermediate
annealing, the sample was further cold rolled, and as seen in
Fig. 9e, a large number of dislocation lines and subgrains
formed in the CR-80 sample. As seen from high resolution
transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) images (Fig. 9f),
the Al2CuMg phase precipitated in the matrix.
4.2. Grain shape and size
EBSD measurements of the samples in the RDeND plane with
different reductions after cold rolling are presented in Fig. 10.
The different color contrasts (in the web version) in the IPF
maps in Fig. 10 correspond to different grain orientations. As
seen from the IPF maps in Fig. 10, most of the grains in the CR-
20 sample (Fig. 10a1) were slightly elongated along the rolling
direction, and a few grains still retained an equiaxed struc-
ture. However, as shown in Fig. 10b1 and c1, with further in-
creases in the cumulative reduction, the grains were
significantly elongated in the rolling direction and fragmented
into smaller grains, and the width/height ratio of the grains
increased. Moreover, many small grains with different orien-
tations formed in the interior and boundary of large grains. A
parallel conclusion is indicated by the grain boundary maps in
Fig. 10, where the black and green lines indicate the location of
high angle grain boundaries (HAGB, 15
e65
) and low angle
grain boundaries (LAGB, 2
e15
), respectively. As seen from
Fig. 10a2, b2, and c2, LAGBs were mainly distributed in the
grain interior. With an increase in the cumulative reduction,

Fig. 10 e Inverse pole figure (IPF) maps, grain boundary maps, and misorientation angle frequency histograms of the P/M
2024 Al alloy with different reductions after cold rolling: (a) CR-20; (b) CR-60; (c) CR-80.
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 3 3 7 e3 3 4 8 3345

Fig. 11 e Recrystallization grain statistics (a) and grain size distributions (b) of the cold-rolled 2024 aluminum alloy with
different reductions.

the number of LAGBs gradually increased from CR-20 to CR-80.
In particular, the number of LAGBs was largest in CR-80. This
is consistent with the results described in the TEM micro-
graphs in Fig. 9. With an increase in the cumulative reduction,
the dislocation density increased and a large number of sub-
grains were generated.
However, as seen from the frequency histograms of the
misorientation angle from CR-20 to CR-80 in Fig. 10a3, b3, and
c3, the proportion of LAGBs in total gradually decreased from
40.2% to 20.4%, and the proportion of HAGBs in total gradually
increased from 59.8% to 79.6%. This indicates that the increase
in the cumulative reduction leads to an increase in the number

Fig. 12 e ODFs of the P/M 2024 Al alloy with different reductions after cold rolling: (a) CR-0; (b) CR-20; (c) CR-60; (d) CR-80.
3346 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s r e s e a r c h a n d t e c h n o l o g y 2 0 2 1 ; 1 5 : 3 3 3 7 e3 3 4 8
of HAGBs. The following reasons may be the cause of this: (1) In
the process of cold rolling, the grain fragmented into many
smaller grains because of severe plastic deformation. (2) The
deformed grains recrystallized via intermediate annealing
between the cold rolling passes. (3) Under the action of the
rolling force and dislocation, the subgrains with large size and
misorientation grew further toward the surrounding subgrains
and finally formed HAGBs with misorientation angles greater
than 15
. Moreover, as seen from Fig. 11a, recrystallization and
substructure gradually decreased from CR-0 to CR-80, and
deformed grains increased significantly. Also, as seen from the
grain size distribution of the samples with different reductions
(Fig. 11b), the grain size gradually decreased from 6.5 mm to
1.3 mm from CR-20 to CR-80. This indicates that cold rolling
resulted in grain refinement, which in turn increased the
number of HAGBs. This is consistent with the results that
indicated that HAGBs formed mainly via the mechanism of
grain subdivision, as reported in the literature [34,44,45].
4.3. Texture evolution
Fig. 12 shows orientation distribution function (ODF) plots of
samples with different reductions after cold rolling. The
texture type and texture intensity formed in the cold-rolled
alloy can be intuitively understood from the ODF plots.
Generally, there are the following types of textures in
aluminum alloys after cold rolling: copper texture {112}<111>,
S texture {123}<634>, brass texture {001}<211>, and Gaussian
texture {011}<100> [46,47]. The ODF results show that the
maximum intensity of CR-0 (Fig. 12a) was 2.91, which in-
dicates that no texture formed in the sintered alloy. When the
rolling reduction is 20% (Fig. 12b), the CR-20 sample had a
maximum intensity of 3.68 and mainly formed a weak
Gaussian texture [48]. This is mainly because in the initial
stage of cold rolling, the compactness of the sample was
mainly improved, and the deformation of the grain was very
small. With an increase in cumulative reduction (Fig. 12c), the
maximum intensity of CR-60 increased to 18.0, indicating that
a strong texture formed. However, the texture of the CR-60
sample does not have the above deformation textures or
recrystallization textures. This may be related to the struc-
tural characteristics of powder metallurgy materials because
the sample was sintered from a single powder particle, and
the continuity of the microstructure was not as good as that of
the as-cast materials. In contrast, the maximum intensity of
the CR-80 sample was also relatively high, reaching 19.9.
There are weak cubic texture {001}<100> and R-type texture
{124}<211> [49], both of which are recrystallized textures. This
recrystallization texture may be produced during the inter-
mediate annealing process and are retained in the subsequent
cold rolling process because of the small rolling reduction.
5. Conclusions
In the present work, the P/M 2024 Al alloy was cold rolled. The
specific conclusions are as follows.
(1) After cold rolling of P/M 2024 aluminum alloy, the grain
elongate along the rolling direction and the grain size
decreases obviously. When the cumulative reduction
increased from 0% to 80%, the microstructure gradually
evolved from the original equiaxed structure to the
fibrous structure, and the mean grain size decreased
from 26.97 mm to 1.3 mm.
(2) The precipitates distributed continuously along grain
boundaries in the sintered alloy were broken and
refined by cold rolling, which become spherical or
ellipsoidal and distribute evenly in the alloy matrix.
XRD and TEM results show that the precipitated phase
is mainly Al2CuMg phase.
(3) The obvious texture was formed in P/M 2024 aluminum
alloy after cold rolling. The texture types generated
were mainly cubic texture {001}<100> and r-type texture
{124}<211>.
(4) When the cumulative reduction increases from 0 to
80%, the relative density increases from 98.31% to
99.04%, the Vickers hardness increases from 75.32 HV to
85.86 HV, and the tensile strength increases from
221.94 MPa to 302.88 MPa. The improvement of me-
chanical properties of P/M 2024 aluminum alloy after
cold rolling is mainly attributed to the combined effects
of the increase in the microstructural compactness,
grain refinement and dislocation strengthening.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The author acknowledges the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 61XXXX02) for the financial support.
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