An In Situ Study of the Role of Pressure on Fe Recrystallization and Grain Growth during Thermomechanical Processing

TL;DR

This study investigates how elevated pressures influence Fe recrystallization and grain growth during thermomechanical processing, revealing that higher pressures significantly slow microstructural evolution, using in situ synchrotron X-ray techniques.

Contribution

It introduces an in situ method to measure pressure effects on Fe microstructure evolution during thermomechanical processing.

Findings

Increased pressure slows recrystallization rates.

Grain growth is significantly retarded at higher pressures.

Synchrotron-compatible multi-anvil presses enable real-time microstructural analysis.

Abstract

Elevated pressures are encountered in many metal forming processes that can alter microstructural evolution rates. Here we measure rate changes with pressure in recrystallization and grain growth in Fe through adaptation of synchrotron-compatible multi-anvil presses, originally designed for study of the mantle. Recrystallization and grain growth are monitored in situ using high-energy X-ray diffraction. Principal component analysis applied to the diffraction images is used to quantify evolution rates, with increasing pressure significantly slowing the process.