Grain refinement in a plain carbon steel under intercritical warm deformation was studied by torsion testing. Based on the experimental results. tbp warm flow behaviour and microstructural evolution of ferrite were researched with particular emphasis on the effect of the strain rate in controlling the grain refinement mechanism of ferrite. The deformed microstructures were investigated at various strain rates using optical microscopy and electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD). The EBSD observations indicate that an increase in the strain rate leads to the development of new fine ferrite grains with high angle boundaries. Furthermore, it shows that the annihilation of dislocations occurs more readily at lower strain rate. The elongated ferrite grains continuously dynamically recrystallize to form the equiaxed fine ferrite grains. Thereby, the aspect ratio of elongated grains decreases with increasing the strain rate. Furthermore, the peak stress and steady state stress of ferrite both increase with increasing strain rate. Based on the study, the effect of strain rate on the development of fine ferrite grains during continuous dynamic recrystallization of ferrite was analyzed in detail.
