The effect of rolling geometry on the distribution of deformed cube structure and its recrystallisation kinetics

The microstructure, distribution and recrystallisation kinetics of cube-oriented deformation structures in copper cold rolled at two different rolling geometries were studied. It was found that a suitable amount of redundant shear strain during rolling increases the density and volume fraction of the cube-oriented deformation structure. In addition, the cube-oriented structure at the rolling sheet surface, where the redundant shear strain is generally larger than that at the centre region, was found to have a smaller average misorientation angle from the exact cube orientation. Irrespective to these factors, the cube-oriented structure formed by rolling at a high redundant shear condition recrystallises much slower than that formed at a lower redundant shear condition. On the other hand, this observation is consistent with the fact that the 25–40° 〈111〉 misorientation relationship between the cube-oriented structures and their neighbours is least frequently found in the regions of large redundant shear. That is, many of the cube-oriented structures formed with a high redundant shear do not have neighbours with the favourable 25–40° 〈111〉 misorientation relationship for high rate of grain boundary migration during recrystallisation.