Relating Initial Texture to Deformation Behavior During Cold Rolling and Static Recrystallization Upon Subsequent Annealing of an Extruded WE43 Alloy

Deformation behaviors during cold rolling and static recrystallization behaviors upon subsequent annealing of an extruded WE43 alloys with different initial textures were investigated in this study. Three types of differently textured WE43 initial alloys were labeled as samples I, II and III. The results showed that multiple twinning modes and basal slip dominated the deformation of samples during cold rolling. Cold-rolled sample I activated the larger number of double twins with high strain energy, accompanied by the more uniform strain distribution, than cold-rolled samples II and III. During subsequent annealing, recrystallized grains preferentially occurred in double twins, twin-twin intersections and grain boundaries, thereby making cold-rolled sample I have the more rapid recrystallization rate. Similar recrystallization textures formed in three types of cold-rolled samples at the recrystallization nucleation stage, and they never largely changed with the annealing time due to the uniform grain growth induced by the solute drag and the precipitation pinning at grain boundaries. After full recrystallization, the grain growth was controlled by the solute drag, instead of precipitates which were re-dissolved into the matrix. Finally, the nucleation and growth kinetics of static recrystallization were calculated, and the effects of initial texture on activation energies of recrystallization nucleation and growth were discussed.