Materials Science Forum Vol. 550

Abstract: Plane strain compression tests have been carried out on Ti stabilised interstitial free steel at 700oC with constant and changing strain rates. Specimens were annealed in a salt bath at 750oC to determine the effects of changing strain rate on the kinetics of static recrystallisation and on the recrystallised grain size. After relatively slow changes in rate, the recrystallisation behaviour at the end of the change was the same as for tests at constant strain rate with the final value. For faster changes in rate, there were transients in recrystallisation rate and recrystallised grain size at the end of the change in strain rate at a strain of 1.0. These were removed by a further increment of 0.1 strain at constant rate. In all cases the recrystallised grain size correlated with the subgrain size present at the end of deformation.

Abstract: Finite element models for metal forming and models for the prediction of forming limit strains should be as accurate as possible, and hence should take effects due to texture, microstructure and substructure (dislocation patterns) into account. To achieve this, a hierarchical type of modelling is proposed in order to maintain the balance between calculation speed (required for engineering applications) and accuracy. This means that the FE models work with an analytical constitutive model, the parameters of which are identified using results of multilevel models. The analytical constitutive model will be discussed, as well as the identification procedure. The multilevel models usually connect the macro-scale with a meso-scale (grain level) via a homogenisation procedure. They can also be used to make predictions of deformation textures. These will be quantitatively compared with experimentally obtained rolling textures of steel and aluminium alloys. It was found that only models which to some extent take both stress and strain interactions between adjacent grains into account perform well. Finally an example of a three level model, also including the micro-scale (i.e. the dislocation substructure), will be given.

Abstract: Computer-based alloy and process development requires integration of models for simulating the evolution of microstructure, microchemistry and crystallographic texture into process models of the thermo-mechanical production of Al sheet. The present paper focuses on recent developments in linking softening modules that simulate the progress of recovery and recrystallization with the following texture changes to deformation and microchemistry models. The potential of such coupled simulations is illustrated by way of the thermo-mechanical processing of Al-Mn-Mg AA 3104 can stock. In particular, the impact of inter-stand recrystallization between the tandem hot rolling passes as well as recrystallization during coil cooling (“self-annealing”) on the resulting hot strip and final gauge textures are explored. Finally, the predicted textures are input into a polycrystal-plasticity approach to simulate anisotropic properties (earing behaviour) of the sheets. Thus, it is possible to link the materials properties at final gauge to the decisive steps of deformation and recrystallization along the thermo-mechanical process chain.

Abstract: Iterative processing, involving sequential deformation and annealing, has been carried out on copper specimens with the aim of grain boundary engineering (GBE) them. The data have provided some interesting insights into the mechanisms of GBE. The results have demonstrated that development of a high proportion of Σ3s is beneficial to properties, as shown by improved strain-to-failure for the same strength. The proportion of Σ3s saturates at approximately 60% length fraction. Analysis of the data indicates that iterative processing is not always necessary for the development of beneficial properties, and it is further suggested that the condition of the starting specimen has a large influence on the subsequent microstructural development. The present, new data are also compared with previous research on copper where all five parameters of the grain boundary network population have been measured.

Abstract: A combined model is presented that predicts the non-uniform distribution of Al3X dispersoid particles in commercial aluminium alloys containing zirconium and scandium and uses these predictions as inputs to a simple recrystallization model. The recrystallization model relies on knowledge of the stored energy in the sub-structure after deformation and this has been measured using electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) techniques. The recrystallization model is based on the concept that partial recrystallization results from the non-uniform distribution of dispersoid particles due to their precipitation from a segregated cast structure. The model has been used to devise an improved homogenization treatment for AA7050, which uses an isothermal hold during heat up to maximize dispersoid nucleation. It has also been applied to predict the effect of scandium additions on recrystallization, investigate the factors that control the through thickness variation in recrystallized fraction, and interpret the results of experiments where the effect of strain rate have been studied.

Abstract: A typical dual-beam platform combines a focussed ion beam (FIB) microscope with a field emission gun scanning electron microscope (FEGSEM). Using this platform, it is possible to sequentially mill off > ~ 50 nm slices of a material by FIB and characterise, at high resolution, the crystallographic features of each new surface by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The successive images can be combined to generate 3-D crystallographic maps of the microstructure. This paper describes various aspects of 3-D FIB tomography in the context of understanding the microstructural evolution of metals during deformation and annealing. The first part of the paper describes the influence of both metal type and milling parameters on the quality of EBSD patterns generated from a surface prepared by FIB milling. Single crystals of some face centred cubic metals were examined under varying FIB milling parameters to optimise EBSD pattern quality. It was found that pattern quality improves with increasing atomic number with the FIB milling parameters needed to be adjusted accordingly. The second part of the paper describes a useful technique for FIB milling for the reliable reconstruction of 3-D microstructures using EBSD. There is an initial procedure involving extensive milling to generate a protruding rectangular-shaped volume at the free surface. Serial sectioning is subsequently carried out on this volume. The technique was used to investigate the recrystallization behaviour of a particle-containing nickel sample, which revealed a number of features of the recrystallizing grains that are not clearly evident in 2-D EBSD micrographs.

Abstract: The surface ridging behaviour during tensile straining has been characterised for two ferritic stainless steels possessing different austenite potentials (0.1 and 0.6 respectively). Microstructural and texture heterogeneities have been detected to different levels in each steel and are used to explain the extent of surface ridging by considering a ridging mechanism arising from differential transverse strains. Orientation images are presented to trace the development of orientation clusters during recrystallisation.

Abstract: BCC wires macroscopically deformed by axisymmetric elongation (wire drawing) develop an intense <011> fibre texture and exhibit a characteristic non-uniform deformation of the grains evident in transverse sections (grain curling or “Van Gogh sky structure”). The extraordinary grain morphology induced by the <011> fibre texture is also accompanied by a peculiar constant strain hardening rate in single-phase BCC wires (exponentially increasing in case of BCC containing composite wires) that allows to reach very high strengths. Here we present a calculation of the elastoplastic axial elongation of such an aggregate of BCC grains with the ideal <011> fibre texture, using a slip-gradient dependent large-strain crystal plasticity constitutive equation incorporated into a finite element method (FEM) code, i.e., with proper account of the influence of the evolving shape and size of individual grains and of the local grain interactions. The results reproduce well the observed macroscopic behaviour (linear flow stress-strain curve at large strains) and the peculiar mesoscopic structural changes (grain curling in transverse sections). The simulation is focused on the analysis of strain and dislocation density heterogeneities and on the building up of mesoscopic (inter- and intra-granular) internal stresses during deformation. The computed average transverse tensile stresses acting normal to the axially oriented {100} planes approximately parallel to the boundaries of the flattened grains is close to 0.3 times the tensile flow stress of the aggregate, in good agreement with previous calculations based on the Taylor-Bishop-Hill model or on elasticplastic self-consistent calculations and with available neutron diffraction measurements. Such a high level of internal tensile stresses explains the well-known tendency of high strength BCC wires to fail by longitudinal splitting.