Recrystallization behavior of a high-manganese steel: Experiments and simulations

Abstract The thermal treatment of a 30% cold-rolled Fe–28Mn–0.28C Twinning-Induced Plasticity (TWIP) steel was investigated. The low degree of rolling served to exclude the effect of shear banding but to capture the characteristic texture evolution. A detailed microstructure and texture characterization was performed by means of SEM/EBSD, X-ray texture analysis, and hardness measurements. Specifically, the dislocation density distribution was computed using a Crystal Plasticity Finite Element Method (CP-FEM) framework and the primary recrystallization was modeled by means of a Cellular Automaton (CA) approach. The macrotexture of the recrystallized state was controlled by (i) retainment of the deformation texture components during nucleation due to oriented nucleation and (ii) the formation of new orientations by recrystallization twinning. The nucleation of new grains occurred heterogeneously at grain boundaries. The experimental results were used as input data for simulations. The results from the CP-FEM simulations in the form of orientation-resolved dislocation densities and the orientation and density of recrystallization nuclei extracted from SEM/EBSD measurements were directly transferred into a 3D CA for the simulation of primary recrystallization. The results substantiated that the consideration of realistic simulation scenarios in terms of microstructural inhomogeneity and annealing twin formation is essential for an accurate prediction of the recrystallization behavior of the investigated high-manganese steel.