Monte Carlo modeling of low carbon steel recrystallization: Role of thermo-mechanical treatment and chemical composition

The recrystallization process of two low-carbon ferritic steels with low fraction of alloying elements are modelled. The difference in chemical composition and initial thermomechanical treatment between these two steels can be the cause of the difference in the stored energy distribution after 40% deformation by cold rolling or plane compression simulated by Finite Element Modelling (FEM). In both cases the deformation texture is characterized by the presence of a γ- fibre with a reinforcement for the {111}〈112〉 component. The microstructure simulated by FEM is used as initial structure for Monte-Carlo simulations of recrystallization. In these simulations, the variation in chemical composition and initial thermo-mechanical treatment is introduced by the difference in stored energy distribution while recovery, nucleation and grain growth are simulated assuming that grain boundary properties mainly depend on misorientation Modelling results are in agreement with experimental observations : that is the presence of a γ- recrystallization fibre which corresponds to the initial deformed state and the development of {111}〈110〉 component which is not sharp in the deformation microstructure.