Strain softening during tension in cold drawn Cu–Ag alloys

•Strain softening occurred during tension of Cu–Ag alloys with coarse grain size.•Work hardening was observed in hot-extruded and annealed Cu–0.1wt.%Ag alloys.•Strain softening was ascribed to dynamic recovery and dynamic recrystallization.

Experiments were conducted on Cu–0.1wt.%Ag alloys to evaluate the influence of producing procedures and annealing conditions on microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of Cu–Ag alloys. Optical microscopy (OM), electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used for microstructural evaluation and mechanical properties were characterized by tensile tests. The results indicated that hot-extruded Cu–Ag alloys had a typical dynamic recrystallized microstructure with equiaxed grains. Cold drawing at room temperature leaded to partial recrystallized microstructure with a mixture of coarse and fine grains. The dominate {001}<100 > cubic texture formed during hot extrusion was changed to be {112}<111 > copper texture by cold drawing. Strain softening occurred during room temperature tension of cold drawn Cu–Ag alloys with an average grain size of 13–19.7 μm.