Influencing recrystallization behaviour by mechanical loads

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the effect of mechanical loads on the recrystallization behaviour of an Al–2%Mg alloy. The experiments were performed to analyze the hardness evolution, grain size distribution as well as the microstructure and texture evolution of samples, which were cold rolled with 80% thickness reduction and subsequently annealed at 573 K under the influence of different mechanical loads and for comparison were also annealed without an external load. The applied mechanical load was below the critical stress for activation of dynamic recrystallization. It is shown that the applied mechanical stress field can drastically change the recrystallization kinetics and the microstructure evolution.