Microstructural path and temperature dependence of recrystallization in commercial aluminum

The isothermal recrystallization of 90% cold-rolled commercial purity aluminum alloy AA1050 was studied by means of quantitative microscopy at four temperatures from 245°C to 280°C. The microstructural properties, Vv, the volume fraction recrystallized, Sv, the interfacial area density separating recrystallized grains from deformed grains and 〈λ〉, the mean recrystallized grain free length, were measured stereologically as a function of time.

The kinetics, microstructural path, grain boundary migration rates and temperature dependence of recrystallization were quantified experimentally. Based on analysis of all data and microstructural path modelling, recrystallization was determined to be growth (boundary migration rate) controlled; all nucleation occurred in time periods short compared to the earliest annealing times.

The activation energy for grain boundary migration was calculated to be 172–183 kJ/mole suggesting that a solute-limited grain boundary migration rate mechanism was operative in the alloy. The recrystallization microstructural path was found to be isokinetic, i.e. identical at all the annealing temperatures studied.

Two stages of recrystallization kinetics were observed; an early transient-like stage characterized by decreasing growth rates and a later stage in which the kinetics approached Avrami behavior and the growth rates were approximately constant. The transient-like behavior is attributed to the steep, deformation-induced stored energy gradients surrrounding precipitate particles where the recrystallized grains are nucleated.