Influence of the heating rate on the recrystallization behavior of molybdenum

Due to its high stacking fault energy, the recrystallization behavior of molybdenum is strongly dominated by concurrent recovery processes. Therefore, the extent of pre-recovery is believed to influence subsequent recrystallization processes. In the present investigation, this influence was studied by continuous heating experiments of cold-compressed specimens with linear heating rates in the range of 1–1000 K/min to target temperatures in between 800 and 1300 °C. The subsequent microstructural characterization was carried out by electron-channeling-contrast-imaging, hardness tests and electron-back-scatter-diffraction. It was revealed that pre-recovery promoted subsequent recrystallization at lower heating rates (1–100 K/min) which resulted in increased volume fractions of recrystallized grains with decreasing heating rate. In contrast to that, upon rapid heating (1000 K/min), low temperature pre-recovery seemed negligible. Consequently, there was enough stored energy left for rapid recrystallization at higher temperatures. The effect of the heating rate on the recrystallization behavior of molybdenum is discussed.