The spatial distribution of nucleation sites and its effect on recrystallization kinetics in commercial aluminum alloys

Particle distributions play a major role in the processing response of aluminum alloys. While large constituent particles play an important role in the nucleation of recrystallization, small particles may heavily restrict the growth of recrystallized grains. In the present investigation, a two-dimensional (2-D) tesselation procedure has been used to characterize the particle distribution in commercial aluminum alloys and its relevance to nucleation of recrystallization. This procedure enabled the quantification of the degree of particle clustering in samples rolled to different strain levels. A characteristic aspect seems to be a transition from a rather nonuniform spatial distribution at low rolling strains, toward a more or less random distribution at high strains. Nucleation kinetics has been found to be site saturated, indicating that all nucleation events effectively occur at the start of recrystallization. A simple model is proposed, which explains the development of the spatial particle distribution as a function of rolling strain.