The application of ball-milling for reactant powders (Fe2 O3 +Al) to form in situ nanosized reaction products in the stir zone of 1050 aluminium alloy was examined and the evolution of microstructure, grain boundaries and microtexture of the fabricated Al/(Al13 Fe4 +Al2 O3 ) nanocomposite was investigated. The mean matrix grain size of the fabricated nanocomposites by the combination of ball milling and friction stir processing were found to be ∼3.2, 3.1 and 2.1 μm for 1, 2 and 3 h milled powder mixtures, respectively. The fraction of high-angle grain boundaries increased markedly in the stir zone indicating the occurrence of dynamic restoration of the aluminium matrix. This was also associated with increasing of the fraction of low ∑CSL boundaries. In addition, the fraction of high-angle grain boundaries increased as the reaction product increased. The developed textures were compared with the most important deformation and recrystallisation texture components of cubic close packed structure. Some of the main texture components formed due to the restoration of aluminium in the stir zone of the material with no powder addition were CubeND {001}<310>, BR {236}<385> and R (or retained S{123} <634>); these are usually found in the rolled materials. However, the presence of nanosized reaction products in the fabricated nanocomposite changed the texture components to the dominant Goss {011}<100>, P {011}<122> and R{124}<211> textures.
Keywords: EBSD; friction stir processing; grain refinement; microtexture; nanocomposite.
© 2017 The Authors Journal of Microscopy © 2017 Royal Microscopical Society.