Formation of annealing twins during recrystallization and grain growth in 304L austenitic stainless steel

Understanding of the mechanisms of annealing twin formation is fundamental for grain boundary engineering. In this work, the formation of annealing twins in a 304L austenitic stainless steel is examined in relation to the thermo-mechanical history. The behavior of annealing twins of various morphologies is analyzed using an in-situ annealing device and EBSD. The results confirm that there is a synergistic effect of prior strain level on annealing twin density generated during recrystallization. The higher the prior strain level, the higher the velocity of grain boundary migration and the higher the annealing twin density in the recrystallized grains. This effect decreases as the recrystallization fraction increases. The existing mathematical models (Pande's model and Gleiter's model), which were established to predict annealing twin density in the grain growth regime, can not predict this phenomenon. 1. Introduction In 1926, Carpenter and Tamura [1] were the first to observe the formation of annealing twins. Since then, annealing twins have been observed in a variety of deformed and subsequently annealed F.C.C. materials. A "twin" refers to a grain that has one or two twin boundaries with a larger grain in which it is embedded. For the F.C.C. crystal structure, the twin boundary misorientation can be obtained by rotating the orientation of the parent grain 60° about<111>. For a coherent twin boundary, the boundary plane is parallel to {111} plan while the boundary plane differs from {111} plane for an incoherent twin boundary. Being one of the most important kinds of special boundaries, annealing twin boundaries affect many properties like anti-corrosion and anti-fatigue in a large variety of materials, including such technologically important material as superalloys [2]. Today, eighty years after the discovery of annealing twins, metallurgists still do not have a clear understanding of their formation. The growth accident theory, which suggests that a coherent twin boundary forms at a migrating grain boundary due to a stacking error, is supported by a majority of recent experimental results [3-5]. In the growth accident theory, the migration distance and migration velocity of grain boundary are two key positive factors to annealing twin generation. However, the only two mathematical models based on this theory [6,7], which were established to predict annealing twin density in the grain growth regime, are not capable of predicting annealing twin density in the recrystallization regime. The aim of the present work is to extract some regular patterns of annealing twin formation during …