Microstructure and mechanical properties of columnar-grained copper produced by the Ohno continuous casting technique

The microstructure and mechanical properties of columnar-grained copper under casting and drawing conditions were investigated in the present work. It was found that the as-casted copper mainly consisted of continuous columnar grains with orientation preference along <100> and exhibited excellent plastic deformation ability. Moreover, the texture of columnar-grained copper transferred from <100> to <111> during the drawing process. A typical microstructural morphology as multangular-cup feature of as-casted copper as well as drawn copper was observed on the fracture surfaces. With increasing the drawn strain, the texture evolution and the grains broken occurred, leading to a significant increase in the work hardening rate and tensile strength.