Effect of secondary phase on grain growth process of α/β dual-phase CuZn alloy

Investigation of the effect of a secondary β phase on the grain growth process in a Cu-40mass%Zn alloy with a α/β dual-phase microstructure resulted in the following: (1) The α phase grains did not display marked texture even after grain growth advanced, while the β phase showed strong texture of (001)[110] at an early stage of annealing and then (111)[110] texture appeared with further annealing. The α phase matrix was separated into small regions by randomly distributed β phase and development of the texture in the a phase grains was disturbed by the β phase. (2) The GBCD of α/β grain boundaries did not show a remarkable change during annealing, while the frequency of random boundaries increased in β/β boundaries. (3) Ostwald ripening occurred for β phase grains in the α phase matrix. The supersaturation of solute atoms due to the dissolution of small β grains provided the driving force for the migration of α/β interphase boundary.