Recrystallization behavior of cold-rolled Zr-1Nb alloy

The recrystallization behavior of cold-rolled Zr-1Nb alloy was investigated by measuring the micro-Vickers hardness of the specimens annealed for various times. Different deformation reductions and annealing temperatures were coupled to study the effects of deformation and temperature on the recrystallization behavior of Zr-1Nb alloy. The results show that both large deformation reduction and high annealing temperature accelerate the recrystallization process. The microstructural evolution during recrystallization was characterized by optical microscope (OM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) to correlate with the variation of Vickers hardness. The TEM observation also revealed the distribution of different types of Nb-containing precipitates during recrystallization. The Vickers hardness data were fitted by using the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov (JMAK) equation to derive the activation energies for recrystallization, giving the corresponding recrystallization maps. This study provides useful guidelines for the processing of a broad family of zirconium alloys based on Zr-1Nb.