  The influence of the physical mechanisms activated during deformation and
annealing on the microstructure and texture evolution as well as on the
mechanical properties in the equiatomic CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy (HEA)
were investigated. A combination of cold rolling and annealing was used to
investigate the HEA in the deformed, recovered, partially recrystallized, and
fully recrystallized states. Detailed microstructure and texture analysis was
performed by electron backscatter diffraction, transmission electron
microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The mechanical properties were evaluated
using uniaxial tensile testing. A specific focus of this investigation was put
on studying the influence of deformation and annealing twinning on the material
behavior. It was substantiated that during cold rolling deformation, twinning
facilitates the transition from the Cu-type to the Brass-type texture, whereas
annealing-twinning leads to a strong modification of the texture formed during
recrystallization. The formation of specific twin orientations and the
randomization of the recrystallization texture were proven by experiments as
well as by cellular automaton simulations. During tension of the cold-rolled
and annealed material high work-hardenability was observed. We attribute this
behavior primarily to the dominance of planar dislocation slip and reduced
tendency for dynamic recovery, since deformation twinning was observed to
activate only in the non-recrystallized grains and thus, contributed minimally
to the overall plasticity. The correlation between deformation/annealing
twinning and the material behavior was discussed in detail.
