QUANTITATIVE METALLOGRAPHY OF RECRYSTALLIZATION

A systematic procedure based on optical microscopy has been developed in order to measure the microstructural parameters of interest in recr ystallization studies. It basically consists of the application of ava ilable stereology methods to determine volume fraction recrystallized and to count the types of boundaries commonly found during the transfo rmation. An important feature of this methodology is that it provides information about the nucleation kinetics and growth rate. An example, hot worked and annealed Al-1Mg alloy, is used to illustrate how the d ifferent parameters are calculated from the measurements. The discussi on is focused on the usefulness of this information to understanding t he recrystallization behaviour of metals and alloys. Copyright (C) 199 6 Acta Metallurgica Inc.