Recovery during annealing in a cold rolled low carbon steel. Part II: Modelling the kinetics

Abstract The recovery kinetics of a cold-rolled (84% cold reduction) extra-low carbon steel were studied during isothermal annealing at low temperatures (300–500 °C). The recovery process has been monitored by magnetic coercive field measurements. The experimental data were satisfactorily modelled using a logarithmic time dependence law. The activation energy for the recovery process has been found to increase with the fraction of recovery. The existing relationship between the coercive field and the internal stress was obtained experimentally as both variables are directly related to the total dislocation density. By applying this correlation the kinetics of the dislocation hardening part of the yield stress was derived from the kinetics of the coercive field.