This study investigates the synergistic strengthening effect achieved by combining zirconium (Zr) microalloying with cryorolling (CR) in a 3003 aluminum alloy. Comparative analysis between room temperature rolling (RTR) and CR reveals that CR significantly impacts the microstructural evolution by effectively suppressing dynamic recovery and preserving the coherent L1 2 -Al 3 Zr dispersoids formed during homogenization. Unlike RTR, the cryogenic deformation facilitates the accumulation of a high density of dislocations and the formation of ultrafine subgrain structures. Consequently, The CR+Zr alloy achieves a peak tensile strength by suppressing dynamic recovery and global recrystallization, thereby shifting the dominant strengthening mechanism from simple dislocation forest hardening toward subgrain boundary strengthening stabilized by Al 3 Zr dispersoids.
Jiang et al. (Sun,) studied this question.