Influence of texture and microstructural evolution on ductility and tensile behaviour of annealed Zircaloy-4 processed through swaging

The critical study is focused on improving ductility by maintaining higher strength of swaged Zircaloy-4 through specifically optimized annealing treatment. It has led to evolution of texture to obtain stable (21¯1¯0) pyramidal type in the microstructure, enhanced elongation up to ∼20%. An excellent combination of ductility and strength was achieved through low-strain-swaging followed by annealing optimization, unlike other resource-intensive and conventional SPD techniques. Improvements in mechanical properties, especially ductility enhancement, were substantiated with the detailed and targeted microstructural analysis with EBSD and TEM.