A crystallographic texture perspective formability investigation of aluminium 5052 alloy sheets at various annealing temperatures

Formability, an important mechanical property of the sheet metal is strongly reliant on the crystallographic texture. Consequently deep drawability is also influenced. This paper deals with the perspective of crystallographic texture and its relevance with the formability of AA 5052 aluminium alloy sheet of 2 mm thickness annealed at four different temperatures namely 200 °C, 250 °C, 300 °C and 350 °C. Forming limit diagrams determined and plotted experimentally, their crystallographic textures obtained and their ODF plots prepared by X-ray diffraction were analyzed. The Forming limit diagrams (FLDs) of AA 5052 sheets annealed under different temperatures were examined with respect to the crystallographic texture point of view. The FLDs and crystallographic textures were then correlated with normal anisotropy of the sheet metal. It was found that the formability of aluminium alloy AA 5052 annealed at 350 °C possessed good formability, optimal texture and high normal anisotropy value.