Papers by Keyword: Continuous Recrystallization

Abstract: Polycrystalline Ni (99.5 %) has been deformed to an ultra-high strain of ε_vM=100 (ε_vM, von Mises strain) by high pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature. The deformed sample is nanostructured with an average boundary spacing of 90 nm, a high density of dislocations of >10¹⁵m^-2 and a large fraction of high angle boundaries (>15^o) 68% as determined by transmission electron microscopy and 80% as determined by electron backscatter diffraction. The thermal behavior of this nanostructued sample has been investigated by isochronal annealing for 1h at temperatures from 100 to 600°C, and the evolution of the structural parameters (boundary spacing, average boundary misorientation angle and the fraction of high angle boundaries), crystallographic texture and hardness have been determined. Based on microstructural parameters the stored energy in the deformed state has been estimated to be 24 MPa. The isochronal annealing leads to a hardness drop in three stages: a relatively small decrease at low temperatures (recovery) followed by a rapid decrease at intermediate temperatures (discontinuous recrystallization) and a slow decrease at high temperatures (grain growth). Due to the presence of a small amount of impurity elements, the recovery and recrystallization are strongly retarded in comparison with Ni of high purity (99.967%). This finding emphasizes the importance of alloying in delaying the process of recovery and recrystallization, which enables a tailoring of the microstructure and properties through an optimized annealing treatment.

Abstract: Metals deformed to high and ultrahigh strains are characterized by a nanoscale microstructure, a large fraction of high angle boundaries and a high dislocation density. Another characteristic of such a microstructure is a large stored energy that combines elastic energy due to dislocations and boundary energy. Parameters of the deformed microstructure significantly affect annealing processes such as recovery and recrystallization. For example, the recovery rate can be significantly increased after high strain deformation and restoration may occur as either discontinuous recrystallization or structural coarsening. A characterization and analysis of deformed and annealed microstructures presented in this work covers Al, Ni, Cu and Fe heavily deformed by rolling, accumulative roll bonding (ARB), equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) and high pressure torsion (HPT). The important effect of recovery on subsequent restoration processes is discussed along with the effect of heterogeneities both on the local scale and on the sample scale.

Abstract: The grain structure and texture evolution during annealing an Al-0.13%Mg submicron grained alloy, deformed by plane strain compression (PSC) at cryogenic temperatures, has been investigated. On annealing the grain structure coarsened and transformed from lamellar to equiaxed. But, remarkably, the fraction of low angle boundaries (LABs) increased, from less than ~ 25% to ~50% above 300 °C, leading to instability and discontinuous coarsening at higher temperatures. The surprisingly large increase in LAB fraction on annealing is shown to be related to orientation impingement originating from the strong texture present after PSC in liquid nitrogen.

Abstract: The microstructure evolution during annealing in large strain deformed Fe-32%Ni alloy was investigated by transmission electron microscope (TEM). Firstly, the Fe-32%Ni alloy was subjected to multi-axial forging at temperature of 773K and a strain rate of 10-3 s-1 to cumulative strain of 9.0, and then the large strain deformed specimens were annealed at temperature of 973K with different time. The results show that the grains of Fe-32%Ni alloy were obviously refined by severe plastic deformation, and the ultra-fine grains with mean size of about 300nm were obtained when the cumulative strain amounted to 9.0. The large strain deformed microstructure evolves homogeneously and gradually to equiaxed structures with straight and smooth grain boundaries when annealed at temperature of 973K, and there is no observable nucleation stage found during annealing. The annealing process involves two sequential processes i.e. recovery followed by normal grain growth, and the microstructure evolution mechanism is considered as continuous recrystallization.

Abstract: New thermo-mechanical processes (TMPs) to produce ultrafine-grained copper alloys utilizing continuous recrystallization (cRX) were proposed. These methods stand on our hypothesis that the evolution of ultrafine grains can be evolved by a mechanism of cRX even during severe plastic deformation at ambient temperature. A TMP of warm compression of 10 to 20 % of Cu-1.7mass%Fe alloy followed by annealing was cyclically repeated. The slight reduction, low-temperature annealing and pinning of grain boundaries by precipitates efficiently impeded occurrence of discontinuous recrystallization (dRX). The evolved substructures with nodes of the Fe precipitates gradually changed to new grains surrounded by low- and high-angle boundaries with increasing number of the repeated processes. Ultrafine grains with average size of 0.7 m were successfully evolved. However, the onset of dRX triggered extended grain coarsening accompanied by grain-boundary migration under conditions of insufficient annealing temperature and large pass stain. Another TMP cycles of cold rolling and annealing also induced fine-grained structure of about 0.6 m. The above results improved that ultrafine grain refinement can be realized simply by a mechanism of cRX even in the metallic materials with low stacking fault energy.

Abstract: Equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) was conducted at room temperature to a high strain level of ~24 in high purity copper. Tensile testing, Transition Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) were used to characterize the microstructure and property evolution with the increase of ECAP strain. It was found that tensile yield strength and the stored energy increases upon ECAP processing until a peak reached at 8~12 passes of ECAP, and their saturation was observed at higher ECAP passes. Continuous recrystallization phenomenon in microstructure was observed, where dislocation free crystallites with large misorientation to their surrounding matrix and smaller than the nuclei for discontinuous recrystallization were observed embodied in the matrix of deformed structure with high dislocation density. A two-step process was observed for the formation of these small crystallites, first the condensing of dislocation tangles into a narrow boundary, mostly low angle boundary; And second local migration (in sub-micrometer range) of short grain boundaries, in strong contrast to the dramatic migration of long large angle grain boundaries during discontinuous recrystallization to swallow the deformed matrix, was observed leading to vanish of small subgrains.

Abstract: The thermal stability of equal channel angular extruded VT-6(Ti-6Al-4V) has been examined using micro-hardness, nano-hardness of the individual αand β phases backscattered scanning (BSEI) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). After straining to an equivalent total equivalent of 6.5 samples were annealed for 1 h at temperatures between 175 and 800 o C followed by water quenching. Micro and nano-hardness measurements showed an initial hardness increase, the former rising to a maximum at 175°C, while the latter exhibited a maximum at 500°C. BSEI and TEM analysis showed that these observations can be understood by considering the microstructure changes occurring at different length scales. Annealing in the temperature range of 175 to 500°C did not significantly alter the α and β particle size, while TEM showed that recovery and continuous recrystallization occurred in the α phase, higher temperatures being required to activate the recovery and recrystallization processes within the β phase. Finally at temperatures above 600°C spheroidization and growth of the β phase occurred with the volume fraction of this phase increasing from 15 pct at lower temperature to 25 pct at 800°C, an equi-axed α+ β microstructure being observed at this temperature.

Abstract: A supersaturated Al-0.3 wt.% Sc alloy was cold deformed by ECAP to an equivalent von Mises strain of 9.2 then pre-aged at 350 °C to generate a fine-grained alloy with an average grain size of 1 μm. The microstructure was highly resistant to grain coarsening at temperatures up to 500 °C with a detailed statistical analysis showing that the initial grain size distribution was very close to lognormal and, throughout annealing, remained lognormal and the normalized frequency distribution was time/temperature invariant despite a moderate broadening of the size distribution. This behaviour is largely similar to subgrain coarsening during recovery and grain growth after recrystallization. The homogeneous evolution of the microstructure during annealing, coupled with no appreciable change in texture, is also consistent with the advanced stages of continuous recrystallization.

Abstract: A high-purity Al alloy and a supersaturated Al-0.3wt.% Sc alloy were accumulative roll bonded (ARB) at 200 °C to generate 0.5 mm gauge sheet consisting of 32 alternating layers of Al and Al(Sc). The material was subsequently annealed for 6h at 350 °C. The deformation and annealed microstructures were investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The deformation microstructure composed primarily of lamellar bands of unequal fineness with shear bands and deformation bands being additional substructural features in the Al(Sc) layers. The high strain deformation generated Al layers containing lamellar boundaries separated by a large fraction of high angle grain boundaries, thereby creating the ideal microstructure for continuous recrystallization. Annealing of the as-deformed material generated a hybrid microstructure consisting of alternating layers consisting of ~20 0m grains produced by continuous recrystallization (Al layers) and a lightly recovered substructure (Al(Sc) layers); the latter were highly resistant to recrystallization due to precipitation of nanosized Al3Sc particles during annealing.