Materials Science

Review of Recovery and Recrystallization

Easeng SIV

Institute of Technology of Cambodia

Department of Industrial and Mechanical Eng.
Russian Federation Blvd, P.O. Box. 86, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Recovery, Recrystallization, and Grain Growth
Plastically deforming a polycrystalline metal specimen at
temperatures that are low relative to its absolute melting
temperature produces microstructural and property changes
that include
(1) a change in grain shape (Section 7.6),
(2) strain hardening (Section 7.10), and
(3) an increase in dislocation density (Section 7.3).
Some fraction of the energy expended in deformation is stored
in the metal as strain energy, which is associated with tensile,
compressive, and shear zones around the newly created
dislocations (Section 7.3). Furthermore, other properties
such as electrical conductivity (Section 18.8) and corrosion
resistance may be modified as a consequence of plastic
deformation.
2
 Recovery, Recrystallization, and Grain
Growth

These properties and structures may revert back to the pre

cold-worked states by appropriate heat treatment (sometimes
termed an annealing treatment).

The restoration results from two different processes that

occur at elevated temperatures: recovery and
recrystallization, which may be followed by grain growth.

3
Example of deformed microstructure

4
 Example of deformed microstructure

Fig. 2.9. Various features of deformed microstructures;

(a) Cell structure in 25% cold rolled copper (micron bar shown),
(b) Details of cell structure,
(c) 70:30 brass compressed 12%, showing deformation bands,
(d) Deformation bands (B) in a grain (A) in Al–1%Mg,
(e) Shear bands developed by light rolling on pre-polished, and lightly scratched, surface of 83% cold
rolled copper, (Malin and Hatherly 1979),
(f) Shear bands in Al–Zn–Mg alloy cold rolled 90%, (courtesy of W.B. Hutchinson).
5
 Example of deformed microstructure
Deformation twinning

Fig. 2.14.

(a) Stacking faults in 15% cold rolled, copper-13at.%

aluminium alloy, (Malin 1978),
(b) Strain markings in 70:30 brass after 14%
compression,
(c) deformation twins in 30% cold rolled 70:30 brass,
(Duggan et al. 1978b). (All electron micrographs are
taken from RD-ND sections, and show 1 mm marker
parallel to RD.)
6
 Example of deformed microstructure

Fig. 2.15. Strain markings in deformed copper and brass showing effects of stacking fault energy and
deformation temperature: (a) 90:10 brass compressed 32% at room temperature; (b) (100)[001] single
crystal of copper, rolled 60% at 196°C, (Hatherly and Malin 1979).

7
 Example of deformed microstructure

Fig. 2.20. Shear bands in metals deforming by slip. (a) Shear band in 85% cold rolled iron (Willis 1982).
(b) Shear band in 97% cold rolled copper, (Malin and Hatherly 1979). (ND-RD plane; 1 mm marker
parallel to RD).

8
 Example of Recrystallization

Recrystallization of aluminum Recrystallization of copper

9
Example of Recrystallization

Particle stimulated nucleation of recrystallization

10
 Recovery

During recovery:

o There is some relief of internal strain energy by dislocation

motion.
o Dislocation density decreases, and dislocations assume low-
energy configurations.
o Some material properties revert back to their precold-worked
values.
o Relieves the stresses from cold working
o Recovery involves annihilation of point defects
o Driving force for recovery is decrease in stored energy from
cold work 11
 Recovery

o During recovery, physical properties of the cold worked

material are restored without any observable change in
microstructure
o Recovery is first stage of annealing which tales place at low
temperatures of annealing
o There is some reduction, though not substantial, in
dislocation density as well apart from formation of dislocation
configurations with low strain energies.
o The concentration of point defects is decreased and
dislocation is allowed to move to lower energy positions
without gross microstructural change.

12
 Recovery

Figure 6.1: Various stages in the recovery of a plastically deformed

material. [Humphreys and Hatherly, 2004].
13
 Recovery

Figure 6.1: Various stages in the recovery of a plastically deformed material.

[Humphreys and Hatherly, 2004].

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 Recovery

Dislocation recovery is not a single microstructural change but

a series of events which are schematically shown in figure 6.1

During recovery the stored energy of the material is lowered

by dislocation movement. There are two primary processes,
these being the annihilation of dislocations and the
rearrangement of dislocations into lower energy
configurations. Both processes are achieved by glide, climb
and cross-slip of dislocations.

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 Recrystallization

During recrystallization:
A new set of strain-free and equiaxed grains form that have
relatively low dislocation densities.
The metal becomes softer, weaker, and more ductile.
• The driving force for recrystallization is the difference in
internal energy between strained and recrystallized material.
• For a cold-worked metal that experiences recrystallization, as
temperature increases (at constant heat-treating time), tensile
strength decreases and ductility increases (per Figure 7.22).
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 Recrystallization

• The recrystallization temperature of a metal alloy is that

temperature at which recrystallization reaches completion in
one hour.
• Two factors that influence the recrystallization temperature are
percent cold work and impurity content. Recrystallization
temperature diminishes with increasing percent cold work. It
rises with increasing concentrations of impurities.
• Plastic deformation of a metal above its recrystallization
temperature is hot working; deformation below is termed cold
working. 17
 Recrystallization
Changes in microstructure during different stages of annealing

Figure 7.21 Photomicrographs showing several stages of the recrystallization and

grain growth of brass.
(a) Cold-worked (33%CW) grain structure.
(b) Initial stage of recrystallization after heating 3 s at 580°C (1075°F); the very small
grains are those that have recrystallized.
(c) Partial replacement of cold-worked grains by recrystallized ones (4 s at 580°C).
(d) Complete recrystallization (8 s at 580°C).
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 Recrystallization

Figure 7.21 (e) Grain growth after 15 min at 580°C. ( f ) Grain growth after 10 min at
700°C (1290°F). All photomicrographs 75X.
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 Recrystallization

Changes in microstructure during different stages of annealing

How the microstructure of a metal is changed by plastic

working and annealing.
(a) If the starting metal has already been annealed it will have
a comparatively low dislocation density.
(b) Plastic working greatly increases the dislocation density.
(c) annealing leads initially to recovery-dislocations move to
low-energy positions.
(d) During further annealing new grains nucleate and grow.
(e) the fully recrystallized metal consists entirely of new
undeformed grains 20
 Recrystallization

Figure 7.22 influence of

annealing temperature (for an
annealing time of 1 h) on the
Secondary Recrystallization tensile strength and ductility of
a brass alloy. Grain size as a
function of annealing
temperature is indicated. Grain
Primary Recrystallization structures during recovery,
recrystallization, and grain
growth stages are shown
schematically.
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Strain Induced Grain Boundary Migration

Fig. 7.27.
(a) SIBM of a boundary
separating a grain of low
stored energy (E1) from
one of higher energy (E2),
(b) dragging of the dislocation
structure behind the
migrating boundary,
(c) the migrating boundary is
free from the dislocation
structure,
(d) SIBM originating at a
single large subgrain.
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 Strain Induced Grain Boundary Migration

Fig (a) : after the critical stress the grain size is decrease which mean that the 1st highest value of Grain Size is the Critical Recrystallization.

Figure 10.23 Relation between grain size, deformation and temperature for
(a) aluminium and (b) copper (after Buergers, Handbuch der Metallphysik, by
courtesy of Akadamie-Verlags-gesellschaft)
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 Annealing twins

Twin boundary: is a stable boundary that refer to a straight line of the deformation of the material.

Figure 10.24 Formation and growth of annealing twins (from Burke and Turnbull,
Progress in Metal Physics 3, 1952, courtesy of Pergamon Press)

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 Recrystallization

Figure 7.23 The variation of recrystallization temperature with percent cold work
for iron. For deformations less than the critical (about 5%CW), recrystallization
will not occur.
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 Recrystallization

Typical data fro recrystallized grain size as a function of prior plastic deformation.
Note that, below a critical deformation, there is not enough strain energy to
nucleate the new strain-free grains. This is just like the critical undercooling needed
to nucleate a solid from its liquid. 26
Recrystallization

27
 Grain Growth

Grain growth is the increase in average grain size of

polycrystalline materials, which proceeds by grain boundary
motion.
o The driving force for grain growth is the reduction in total
grain boundary energy.
o The time dependence of grain size is represented by
Equation 7.9.

- d0 is the initial grain diameter at t=0, and

- K and n are time-independent constants; the value of n
is generally equal to or greater than 2.

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 Grain Growth

Figure 7.24 Schematic Figure 7.25 The logarithm of grain

representation of grain growth diameter versus the logarithm of time for
via atomic diffusion. grain growth in brass at several
temperatures. 29
 Example of Grain Growth

Growth of a two dimensional grain structure Grain growth simulation in three dimensions
(3D)

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 Problem 7.38
The average grain diameter for a brass material was
measured as a function of time at 650°C, which is tabulated
below at two different times:

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 Problem 7.38
Solution
(a) Using the date given and Equation 7.9 (taking n=2), we may
set up two simultaneous equations with d0 and K as unknown;
thus
3.9 × 10−2 𝑚𝑚 2
− 𝑑02 = 30 𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝐾
6.6 × 10−2 𝑚𝑚 2 − 𝑑02 = 90 𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝐾
Solution of these expressions yields a value for d0, the original
grain diameter, of d0= 0.01 mm, and the value for K of 4.73 x
10-5 mm2/min
(b) At 150 min, the diameter d is computed using a rearranged
form of Equation 7.9 as
𝑑 = 𝑑02 + 𝐾𝑡

= 0.01 𝑚𝑚 2 + 4.73 × 10−5 𝑚𝑚2 /𝑚𝑖𝑛 150 𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 0.08532mm

 Problem 7.23
(a) From the plot of yield strength versus (grain diameter)-1/2
for a 70 Cu–30 Zn cartridge brass, Figure 7.15, determine
values for the constants σ0 and ky in Equation 7.7.
(b) Now predict the yield strength of this alloy when the
average grain diameter is 1.0 x 10-3mm.

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 Problem 7.23
Solution
(a) Perhaps the easiest way to solve for 𝜎0 and 𝑘𝑦 in Equation
7.7 is to pick two values each of 𝜎𝑦 and d-1/2 from Figure 7.15,
and then solve two simultaneous equations, which may be
created. For example

The two equations are thus

Solution of these equations yield the value of

and 34
Problem 7.23

35
 Problem 7.24

The lower yield point for an iron that has an average grain
diameter of 5 X 10-2 mm is 135 MPa. At a grain diameter of 8 x
10-3 mm, the yield point increases to 260 MPa. At what grain
diameter will the lower yield point be 205 MPa?

36
 Problem 7.24
Solution
The best way to solve this problem is to first establish two
simultaneous expressions of Equation 7.7, solve for 𝜎0 and
𝑘𝑦 , and finally determine the value of d when 𝜎𝑦 = 205 MPa.
The data pertaining to this problem may be tabulated as
follows:

The two equations thus become

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 Problem 7.14

Which yield the values, 𝜎0 = 51.7 𝑀𝑃𝑎

and 𝑘𝑦 = 18.63 𝑀𝑃𝑎(𝑚𝑚) 1 2

At a yield strength of 205 MPa

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 Problems 7.28

Two previously undeformed cylindrical specimens of an alloy

are to be strain hardened by reducing their cross-sectional
areas (while maintaining their circular cross sections). For one
specimen, the initial and deformed radii are 16 mm and 11 mm,
respectively. The second specimen, with an initial radius of 12
mm, must have the same deformed hardness as the first
specimen; compute the second specimen's radius after
deformation.

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 Problems 7.28
Solution
In order for these two cylindrical specimens to have the same
deformed hardness, they must be deformed to the same
percent cold work. For the first specimen

For the second specimen, the deformed radius is computed

using the above equation and solving for rd as

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