Analysis of the growth of individual grains during recrystallization in pure nickel

The growth of individual grains during recrystallization in 96% cold-rolled pure nickel has been followed using electron backscatter pattern maps of the same surface area taken after each of several annealing steps. It was found that the growth is quite complex, with boundaries moving, stopping and moving again. The growth kinetics differ from grain to grain and, on average, cube-oriented grains grow the fastest. The growth of the grains has also been analyzed as a function of boundary misorientation. This analysis shows that there is no significant difference in misorientation distribution between boundaries that move and those that do not. This is contrary to the usual assumption that the boundary mobility and the migration rate depend on the misorientation across a boundary. This observation and the reasons for the faster growth of cube-oriented grains are discussed.