Influence of different rolling passes and deformation amounts on the microstructure evolution and strengthening mechanism of Cu–Ni–Si alloy

Under the condition of controlling the total rolling deformation to 80.0%, the effects of multi-pass rolling, the ratio of deformation between the first and second stages in two-stage rolling, and aging parameters on the microstructural evolution and property enhancement of Cu–Ni–Si alloy were investigated. The results showed that the second-stage rolling promotes the formation of high-density dislocations, significantly enhancing dislocation strengthening. Simultaneously, the high-density dislocations facilitate the precipitation of the second phase during aging, and concurrently improving the strength and electrical conductivity of the alloy. In the two-stage rolling and aging process, a ratio of first-stage to second-stage rolling deformation less than 1 yields superior comprehensive properties. Specifically, when the first-stage rolling deformation is 35.0% and the second-stage deformation is 68.8%, the alloy achieves an optimal electrical conductivity of 49.53% IACS, hardness of 272.9 HV0.1, tensile strength of 773.0 MPa, and yield strength of 723.3 MPa. This is because a rolling ratio less than 1 results in higher dislocation density; the δ-Ni2Si precipitates have a coherent relationship with the Cu matrix, the interparticle spacing of precipitates is smaller. The average grain size is refined from 1.29 μm to 1.08 μm, significantly enhancing grain boundary strengthening. Dislocation strengthening and second-phase strengthening are the primary strengthening mechanisms of the alloy, and the calculated alloy strength agrees well with the experimental values, with errors less than 3.4%. Additionally, the Avrami equation in phase transformation kinetics was utilized to study the variation law of the volume fraction of the δ-Ni2Si phase with aging time.