Metal Deformation

Set 1 1
 CLASSIFICATION OF RESTORATION
PROCESSES
• Free energy of a crystal is raised
by defects introduced by
deformation – dislocations &
interfaces
• Microstructure and properties are As-deformed Recovered
partially restored by dislocation
rearrangement and annihilation
• New strain-free grains are
nucleated and grow to consume
the old grains
Partially recrystallised Recrystallised
• Further grain growth reduces the
free energy of a crystal due to
grain boundaries
• In certain circumstances, selective
growth of a few large grains
occurs Grain growth Abnormal grain growth
Set 1 2
 CLASSIFICATION OF RESTORATION
PROCESSES
• Various restoration processes can occur both during and after
deformation:

During deformation

• Dynamic processes (recovery, recrystallization and grain growth)

Following deformation

• Static processes (recovery, recrystallization and grain growth)

• Static processes may occur uniformly or discontinuously ….

Set 1 3
 CLASSIFICATION OF STATIC
RESTORATION PROCESSES

Recovery Recrystallization Grain Growth

Continuous Normal grain

Continuous Subgrain growth
recrystallization growth

Discontinuous Primary Abnormal grain

Discontinuous
subgrain growth recrystallization growth

❖The driving forces behind these phenomena: stored strain energy;

surface energy of boundaries
❖Mechanisms of boundary migration
Set 1 4
 FORCES, PRESSURES AND UNITS
Pressure on a Boundary
• Recovery, recrystallization and
grain growth are driven by the
defect content of the material
• Consider two regions A and B
separated by a boundary at
position x
• Assume they have two defect
concentrations with free energies
GA and GB, therefore:

dG  dx G A  G B .a
• The force F on a boundary is
given by dG/dx and the pressure
P on the boundary is F/a,
therefore:
 
P Nm 2  
1 dG
a dx

 (G A  G B )  G Jm 3 
Set 1 5
 UNITS AND THE MAGNITUDE OF P
Recrystallization -
• Driving pressure due to elimination of stored dislocations
• Stored energy due to dislocations is:
E ~ 0.5rGb2
where r is dislocation density, G shear modulus, b the Burgers
vector of the dislocations

In cold rolled copper:

r = 1015-1016 m-2
G = 4.2x1010 Nm-2
b = 0.26 nm
Hence E ~ 2x106 - 2x107 Jm-3 (~10-100 J/mol)

Set 1 P = 2 - 20MPa 6
 UNITS AND THE MAGNITUDE OF P

Recovery and Grain Growth -

• Driving pressure due to boundary energy
• Recovery by subgrain coarsening and grain growth
following recrystallization are both driven by the elimination
of grain boundary area
• Driving pressure for growth is ~3g / D; where D is grain
diameter, g is surface energy (0.2 Jm-2 for low angle
boundary, 0.5 Jm-2 for high angle boundary)

P ~ 0.6MPa (1 mm subgrains)
P ~ 0.01MPa (100 mm grains)

Set 1 7
 UNITS AND THE MAGNITUDE OF P

Driving forces for phase transformation

• Latent heat of fusion ~10kJ/mol
• Solid state phase transformations ~1kJ/mol
(Cu & Fe: 1.4x105 mol/m3  P: 140MPa; Al: 1x105 mol/m3 
P: 100MPa)
P > 200 MPa

e.g. Driving pressure for precipitation ~ 600 MPa

Summary - Energies involved in annealing are very much

smaller than those for phase transformations

Set 1 8