Influence of Fe addition on annealing behaviors of a phosphorus containing brass

Effect of Fe addition on annealing behaviors of cold rolled Cu-30Zn-0.1P brass was investigated in terms of hardness behavior, microstructure development and microtexture evolution. A maximum increase of about 20% in hardness was observed with the addition of Fe before and after annealing. Fe₂P particles were found dispersed in Cu-30Zn-0.1P-0.5Fe alloy before and after annealing and they showed great pinning effects and resulted in inhibited recrystallization, grains refinement and thermal stability enhancement. It is also indicated by kernel average misorientation (KAM) maps that a higher dislocation density and energy were stored in the sample with the addition of Fe. As a result, the second phase strengthening and grain boundary strengthening were found to be responsible for the hardness increment for the alloy with the Fe addition. Besides, a higher fraction of Brass texture was found at the beginning of annealing in Cu-30Zn-0.1P-0.5Fe alloy. The results also showed that Brass texture then translate into Brass-R and (55;30;0) textures during annealing, resulting in high fractions of Brass-R and (55;30;0) textures in Cu-30Zn-0.1P alloy with the addition of Fe after annealing.