Experimental and mathematical simulation of microstructural evolution during hot rolling of Al and Cu material

Rolling and compression tests were carried out to determine the effect of hot working variables - strain, strain rate and temperature - and the initial microstructure on microstructure evolution (grain size and recrystallization kinetics) for some copper and aluminium materials. There are considerable deviations due to the different types of microstructures and the stacking fault energy of Cu and Al. While Cu materials show a strong tendency towards recrystallization due to their low stacking fault energy, recovery prevails for Al materials with their relatively high stacking fault energy. Therefore, the recrystallization processes cannot be assessed on the basis of flow curves as for Cu materials. For a limited number of tests, a mathematical model of the microstructure can be derived for copper materials.