Microstructural modeling of recrystallization in deformed iron single crystals

Abstract

Recrystallization kinetics in a (111)[1$\bar 1$0] iron single crystal deformed 70 pet by rolling were characterized experimentally at temperatures between 500°C and 600°C by means of quantitative metallography. A Laplace transform method was applied to the time-dependent global microstructural properties, volume fraction, interface area per unit volume, and the largest intercept-free length (recrystallized grain) to separate nucleation and interface migration effects from the overall recrystallization kinetics. A comprehensive nucleation and growth model was derived from analysis of the microstructural data. The model consisted of the following salient features: (a) nucleation was random and approximately site-saturated with zero incubation time at all temperatures; (b) the recrystallized grains grew three-dimensionally in the shape of prolate spheroids; and (c) interface migration rates were highly anisotropic, the grains growing at an approximately constant rate in one dimension and at a strongly decreasing rate in the other two dimensions. The present findings were compared to a similar earlier study of a deformed iron (111)[$\bar 1$ $\bar 1$2] single crystal. The time dependencies of the interface migration rates were rationalized in terms of a deformation-induced, nonuniform distribution of stored energy and an orientation-dependent grain boundary mobility.