Subgrain level investigation of the low-stored energy nucleation of static recrystallization in a hot deformed model alloy

Annealing after hot and cold deformation is a common processing path for the manufacturing of metallic materials, in which materials undergo structural changes via recovery and recrystallization phenomena. Albeit its importance, a complete understanding of recrystallization behavior of hot deformed materials has been lacking. In this proposed experiment, we aim to study the structural evolution of hot deformed metals during static annealing using dark field X-ray microscopy (DFXM). The recent DFXM results of the PIs [1, 2] laid the foundation of this study by revealing the recovery and recrystallization in cold deformed samples. This experiment will provide, for the first time, crucial insights on the static annealing of a hot-deformed iron-based alloy.