MSE 210: Microstructural Engineering

Jan 2023 4 Credits

Lecture: 3 h
Lab: 1.5 h

Prafull Pandey
Department of Materials Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar

Lecture 4
FOREWORD: Recovery, Recrystallization and Grain growth
Tilt boundaries

𝜃 𝑏
sin ( ) =
2 2𝑑

𝑏
=
𝑑

• Small angle boundaries are an

array of edge dislocations

• If the spacing between the dislocations decreases the misorientation angle increases

2
Tilt boundaries

• Low angle grain boundaries in a Magnesium specimen. The etch pits correspond to positions where dislocation cut the
surface

3
Surface defect: Interphase interface (Solid 1/Solid 2)

Coherent interface Semicoherent interface Incoherent interface

Dislocation

4
Surface defect: Interphase interface (Solid 1/Solid 2)

Coherent
interface

5
Concepts of grain recovery
Stored energy cold work
• Cold work temperature < 0.5 Tm

• Only a fraction of energy is stored as strain energy

• Fraction of stored energy increases with increasing

Deformation, but at a decreasing rate

• Dislocation density
Annealed metal – 1010 to 1012 m-2
Cold worked metal - 1015 to 1016 m-2
Deformation of pure Cu (polycrystalline) under
tensile loading

6
Physical Metallurgy Principles: R0bert E. Reed-Hill
Concepts of grain recovery
Release of stored energy
• Annealing
• Recovery process starts well
Anisothermal annealing – Continuous heating before the recrystallization process

Isothermal annealing – Heating at a constant temperature

• The maximum energy in the peak is
related with the process of
Recrystallization Recrystallization recrystallization.

• Recrystallization: Nucleation and

growth of new strain free grains at
Recovery the expense of the originally badly
deformed grains.

Recovery • Grain growth: Some recrystallized

grains continue to grow in size.
Anisothermal anneal curve Isothermal anneal curve

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Physical Metallurgy Principles: R0bert E. Reed-Hill
Concepts of grain recovery

Optical microstructure of deformed Fe at different annealing temperatures: (a) As cold rolled; (b) Annealed at
300 C; (c) Annealed at 370 C; (d) Annealed at 410 C; (e) Annealed at 460 C and (f) Annealed at 650 C

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Physical Metallurgy Principles: R0bert E. Reed-Hill
Concepts of grain recovery

• Cold working: Physical and Mechanical

properties change

• Electrical resistivity is almost completely

recovered before recrystallization
• Major change in hardness only occurs
during recrystallization
• No change in the optical microstructure
during recovery - It shows the complicated
nature of the recovery process

9
Physical Metallurgy Principles: R0bert E. Reed-Hill
Concepts of grain recovery

• Recovery in the simplest case occurs by

annihilation of excess dislocation: coming
together of dislocations of opposite sign.
• Negative dislocation with positive
dislocations and left-hand screw with
right-hand screw
• Both Cross-slip and Climb processes are
involved
Recovery of the yield strength of a Zn single crystal at
room temperature

10
Physical Metallurgy Principles: R0bert E. Reed-Hill
Concepts of grain recovery
Polygonization

Plastically bent crystal

(A) (B)

Realignment of edge dislocations during polygonization: (A) Excess dislocations in a bent crystal; (B) The rearrangement
of the dislocations after polygonization

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Physical Metallurgy Principles: R0bert E. Reed-Hill
Concepts of grain recovery
Polygonization

• Figure A: When the same sign dislocations lie on the sample plane,
their strain fields are additive: C for compression and T for tensile
• Figure B: Strain fields of adjacent dislocations partly cancel each
other

• Figure B: In addition to lowering the strain energy, this configuration

(low angle grain boundary) also removes the lattice curvature.
• Regions between these low angle grain boundaries are called as

subgrains

12
Physical Metallurgy Principles: R0bert E. Reed-Hill
Concepts of grain recovery
Polygonization

Polygonization in bent annealed Fe-Si single crystal

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Physical Metallurgy Principles: R0bert E. Reed-Hill
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