Mohammad Ali Mohtadi Bonab

The early stages of annealing behavior of a high-Mn steel were studied at 750°C for 120 and 300 seconds after straining to 30 and 60% (true strain). Different characterization methods comprising optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) were employed to study the macro-texture and microstructural evolutions. EBSD examination revealed that the products of γ‒ε–α' transformation nucleate within deformation twins during deformation. Annealing of a specimen strained to 30% resulted in almost complete reversion of martensite to austenite, re-appearing of deformation twinning as well as partial static recrystallization with a weak texture. The recrystallized grains were formed from untwined parent orientations. Moreover, the nucleation of annealing twinning with a weak texture was observed in high kernel average misorientation area. A fine-grained structure with a weak texture (Copper, S, and Goss) was achieved at 750°C for 300 seconds after straining to 60%.