Deformation structures and textures in cold-rolled 70:30 brass

Optical, X-ray, and electron metallography have been used to examine the substructures and textures in 70:30 brass after rolling reductions from 20 to 98%. A complex picture of deformation is revealed with five distinct but overlapping stages. In addition to normal octahedral slip and. twinning, restricted glide and shear banding are observed to play major roles. The shear bands are a type of local instability which occurs when other homogeneous modes of deformation have become inhibited. Individual bands are associated with large but variable amounts of shear and appear to have a short active life as a result of internal strain-hardening. At low and high deformations normal octahedral slip dominates and the texture develops accordingly. However, the intrusion of twinning and shear banding at intermediate strains interrupts this evolution and modifies the resulting preferred orientation.