Characterization of microstructures near grain boundary in hot deformed AA 3104 aluminum alloy

AA 3104 aluminium alloy was deformed at a temperature of 510 °C and at a strain rate of 5 s− 1 to strains of 0.14 and 0.53 by plane strain compression. The microstructure and orientation gradient in the vicinity of grain boundaries were investigated using transmission electron microscopy. The results show that there is a significant difference in microstructures between the grain-boundary region and the grain interior, depending on the orientations of the neighbouring grains. The grain-boundary region usually displays smaller cells or subgrains and higher misorientation angles than the grain interior. A high orientation gradient is observed near the grain boundary, which corresponds to the difference in deformation microstructures.