Institute of Metals Division - Annealing of a Cold Rolled Aluminum Single Crystal (Discussion page 1313)

IN the classical picture of recrystallization the growth of strain-free grains at the expense of a strained and work hardened matrix is responsible for the softening of cold worked metals on annealing. It has been commonly assumed that the release of the stored energy of cold work, softening, and re-orientation take place simultaneously, as the high angle boundaries of the new recrystallized grains sweep over the cold worked matrix. However, recent evidence indicates',' that, at least in some cases, considerable or even complete soften- ing may take place essentially without reorientation (i.e., without the migration of ordinary high angle grain boundaries, or "recrystallization'') and the release of most of the stored energy of cold work may precede softening. These cases suggest that the property changes, taking place during the annealing of cold worked metals, may be associated with various distinct processes. The study of such situations is of considerable interest, since quantitative data are still scarce. In the present work, isothermal softening curves were determined for a heavily rolled aluminum single crystal, under such conditions that no "recrystallization" occurred until after complete softening. The hardness data were correlated with X-ray diffraction pinhole patterns in order to detect any reorientation that may occur and with measure-