The athermal effect of electric current during electrically assisted (EA) annealing, which is a simple and cost-effective heat treatment technique, is assessed by comparing the performances of EA annealing and induction heat treatment (IHT), using aluminum alloy specimens with a high dislocation density from cold rolling. The dislocation densities after EA annealing and IHT are calculated using X-ray diffraction data to compare the performance of the processes. The performance of EA annealing clearly surpasses that of IHT in a certain temperature range. However, at higher temperatures, the thermal effect alone is able to induce nearly complete annihilation of dislocation density, thus, the practical advantage of EA annealing may diminish.

电辅助 (EA) 退火是一种简单且具有成本效益的热处理技术，通过比较 EA 退火和感应热处理 (IHT) 的性能，使用具有高冷轧产生的位错密度。使用 X 射线衍射数据计算 EA 退火和 IHT 后的位错密度，以比较工艺的性能。EA退火的性能在一定温度范围内明显优于IHT。然而，在更高的温度下，单独的热效应能够导致位错密度几乎完全消失，因此，EA退火的实际优势可能会减弱。