Effects of prior deformation and annealing process on microstructure and annealing twin density in a nickel based alloy

The nickel based alloys with different Σ3 boundary density were achieved by cold-rolling and subsequent annealing treatment. Electron backscattered diffraction analysis showed that the grain size distribution changed with the processing parameters, and the discontinuous Σ3 boundary became continuous with the increase of prior deformation level. Furthermore, the Σ3 boundary density was found to be manipulated by both grain size distribution and Σ3 boundary density per grain which showed an increasing trend with prior deformation level and annealing temperature.