Interactive Effects of Strain, Strain-Rate and Temperatures on Microstructure Evolution in High Rate Severe Plastic Deformation

During high rate severe plastic deformation (HRSPD), strain and strain-rate are not the only external factors that determine microstructural transformations in materials, temperature-rise due to heat generation from deformation processes, also plays an important role. Temperature may influence the microstructure directly by controlling grain growth kinetics and it may also have an indirect effect through the interactive effect on material behavior, which in turn, influences strain and strain-rate parameters. This complex thermomechanics of HRSPD can lead to myriad of microstructure and consequently, material properties and phenomenon. These deformation parameters can be utilized as a 'fingerprint' for the resulting microstructure, and the properties and phenomenon related to it. Here, we capture some of these microstructural transformations by relating grain and sub-grain sizes, to the deformation parameters. In doing so, we find evidence of continuous dynamic recrystallization operative under these HRSPD conditions, where the interplay of strain, strain rate and temperatures offer varying degrees of multimodality in the grain-size distributions.