Recrystallization in hot vs cold deformed commercial aluminum: a microstructure path comparison Original Research Article

Static, isothermal recrystallization at a temperature of 400 °C was studied by means of quantitative microscopy in a well-characterized, commercial purity aluminum-alloy AA1050 that had undergone plane strain deformation at 400 °C at a strain rate of 2.5 s−1 to an equivalent strain of 2. The microstructural properties, Vv, the volume fraction recrystallized, Sv, the interfacial area density separating recrystallizing grains from deformed volumes and <λ>, the mean recrystallized grain free length, were all measured stereologically as a function of time and the reaction kinetics, microstructural path, grain boundary migration rates and nucleation characteristics of the recrystallization were quantified experimentally. The results are compared to a recently published study of recrystallization in the identical pre-deformation starting material but after room temperature deformation by rolling to a comparable strain. Recrystallization kinetics differences between the two materials include: the hot deformed material had a higher, by at least 120 °C, recrystallization temperature; had many fewer recrystallization nuclei leading to a factor of about three larger as-recrystallized grain size; lacked a Cahn-Hagel growth rate transient like the cold deformed exhibited; and required a slightly different impingement model for the microstructural path analysis. In both cases particle stimulated nucleation (PSN) was thought to be operative but it seemed to be much more potent after cold deformation.