A study of recrystallization in single-phase aluminium using in-situ annealing in the scanning electron microscope

In-situ annealing experiments were performed in the scanning electron microscope on a single-phase Al-0.13Mg alloy cold rolled to different strain levels. Once the validity of the technique had been verified by comparison of the recrystallization kinetics and final grain size with bulk annealed samples, the method was used in combination with electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) to study the potential mechanisms for recrystallization in this alloy. During annealing of material rolled to moderate strains (epsilont < 0.7), the primary mechanism was strain-induced boundary migration (SIBM). In material rolled to higher true strains (epsilont > 1.4), recrystallization occurred extensively along pre-existing cube bands and EBSD measurements showed that the mean size of cells within the cube bands was larger than for all other orientations measured, suggesting a size advantage was responsible for the strengthening of cube texture during recrystallization. SIBM was shown to occur concurrently with the nucleation along cube bands but this contributed a lower proportion of nucleation sites during recrystallization.