Continuous recrystallization in austenitic stainless steel after large strain deformation Original Research Article

Static restoration mechanisms operating during annealing were studied in a 304 steel with strain-induced submicron grain structures. The initial microstructure with an average grain size of about 0.3 μm was developed by large strain deformation at 873 K. Early annealing leads to a full relaxation of high internal stresses associated with non-equilibrium strain-induced grain boundaries, while their boundary misorientations and the average grain size barely change. Further annealing results in a transient recrystallization followed by a normal grain growth. The average grain boundary misorientation increases up to around 45° in the former and becomes constant in the latter. This is associated with the change in the grain boundary misorientation distribution from a characteristic strain-induced one to a near random distribution corresponding to a fully recrystallized state. The annealing processes operating in the strain-induced fine grains take place homogeneously in the whole matrix and can be called continuous recrystallization.