Recovery kinetics in the presence of precipitates: The softening response of an Al–Mg–Sc alloy

Recovery of an Al–Mg–Sc alloy in the presence of Al3Sc precipitates has been studied. The results demonstrate that recovery can be separated into two stages. The initial stage is precipitate-independent and consistent with the recovery kinetics of binary Al–Mg alloys. The second is strongly influenced by the presence of precipitates. Precipitates slow recovery, allowing recovered microstructures to be maintained over long annealing times to high homologous temperatures without recrystallization. A physically based model that accounts for the precipitate dependence of recovery is presented and compared to experimental results.