Microstructural evolution of a CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy after swaging and annealing

The processing parameters which govern the evolution of microstructure and texture during rotary swaging and subsequent heat treatments were studied in an equiatomic single-phase CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy. After vacuum induction melting and casting, the diameter of the 40 mm cast ingot was reduced at room temperature to a final diameter of 16.5 mm by rotary swaging (diameter reduction of 60%/area reduction of 80%) and the alloy was then annealed at different temperatures for 1 h. The resulting microstructures were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, electron backscatter diffraction and correlated with results of microhardness measurements. It was found that the microhardness first increases slightly upon annealing below the recrystallization temperature but then drops steeply at higher annealing temperatures due to the onset of recrystallization. Special emphasis was placed on how the microstructure evolves with respect to the radial and longitudinal position in the rod. Finally, a combination of swaging and heat treatment parameters were identified that can produce CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloys with a homogeneous composition and grain size and almost no texture. - Highlights: • Evolution of microstructure and texture in CoCrFeMnNi after swaging and annealing. • Rotary swaging results in major <111> + minor <100>-fiber textures. • Recrystallization (RX) in the deformed microstructure is heterogeneous. • Complete RX resulted in homogenous grain size distributions with no texture. • The low SFE is likely the reason for the homogeneous microstructure after.