Nucleation of recrystallization in fine-grained materials: an extension of the Bailey–Hirsch criterion

Abstract

A new criterion for nucleation in the case of dynamic recrystallization is proposed in order to include the contribution of the grain boundary energy stored in the microstructure in the energy balance. Due to the nucleation events, the total surface area of pre-existing grain boundaries decreases, leading to a nucleus size smaller than expected by conventional nucleation criteria. The new model provides a better prediction of the nucleus size during recrystallization of pure copper compared with the conventional nucleation criterion.

Keywords:

• nucleation
• dynamic recrystallization
• ultrafine grained microstructure
• copper

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan and the Region Rhone-Alpes in France for their financial support. The work was performed within the framework of the Japanese-French joint laboratory ELyT lab.