ANNEALING

Dr. H. K. Khaira
Professor
Deptt. of Mat. Sci. and Met. Engg.
 Heat Treatment
Heat treatment is defined as heating a metal to a specified
temperature, keeping it at that temperature for some time
followed by cooling at a specified rate.
It is a tool to get required microstructure and properties in
the metal.
 Heat treatment

Heat treatment - controlled heating and cooling basically

The basic steps of heat treatment are:

Heating → Soaking → Cooling

3 Handouts 2
 Heat treatment

Heating -> Soaking -> Cooling

Temperature Time of soaking Rate of cooling

Medium of cooling

- Different combinations of the above parameters

- Different compositions of materials and initial phases of materials

Give rise to different heat treatments

4 Handouts 2
Heat Treatments
There are different types of heat treatments.
Annealing is one of the heat treatments given to metals.
Main aim of annealing is to increase the ductility of the
metal.
Types of Heat Treatments
1. Annealing
2. Normalizing
3. Hardening
4. Tempering
5. Precipitation Hardening
Annealing
 Annealing is a heat treatment in which the metal is heated to a
temperature above its recrystallisation temperature, kept at that
temperature for some time for homogenization of temperature
followed by very slow cooling to develop equilibrium structure in
the metal or alloy.

 The steel is heated 30 to 50oC above Ae3 temperature in case of

hypo-eutectoid steels and 30 to 50oC above A1 temperature in case
of hyper-eutectoid temperature

 The cooling is done in the furnace itself.

Fe-Fe3C phase diagram indicating heat treating
temperature ranges for plain carbon steel
Aims of Annealing
- 1. Increase ductility

- 2. Reduce hardness

- 3. Improving formability

- 4. Recrystallize cold worked (strain hardened) metals

- 5. Remove internal stresses

- 6. Increase toughness

- 7. Decrease brittleness

- 8. Increase machinability

- 9. Decrease electrical resistance

- 10. Improve magnetic properties

Types of Annealing
1. Full annealing
2. Stress relief annealing
3. Process annealing
4. Spheroidizing annealing
Heat Treatment Temperature

←Acm
The temperature
ranges to which the
A3→
steel has to be
heated for different
heat treatments
1. Full annealing
It is heating the steel 30 to 50oC above Ae3 temperature in case
of hypo-eutectoid steels and 30 to 50oC above A1 temperature
in case of hyper-eutectoid temperature, keeping it at that
temperature for some time for homogenization of
temperature followed by cooling at a very slow rate (furnace
cooling).
The cooling rate may be about 10oC per hour.
1. Full annealing
It is to get all the changes in the properties of the metals like
1. Producing equilibrium microstructure,
2. Increase in ductility,
3. Reduction in hardness, strength, brittleness and
4. Removal of internal stresses.
The microstructure after annealing contains coarse ferrite and pearlite.
Annealing on TTT Diagram

The cooling rate during

annealing is very slow, about
100C per hour.
2. Stress Relief Annealing
 In stress relief annealing, the metal is heated to a lower
temperature and is kept at that temperature for some time to
remove the internal stresses followed by slow cooling.
 The aim of the stress relief annealing is to remove the internal
stresses produced in the metal due to
Plastic deformation
Non-uniform cooling
Phase transformation
 No phase transformation takes place during stress relief annealing.
3. Spheroidizing Annealing
In spheroidizing annealing, the steel is heated to a
temperature below A1 temperature, kept at that temperature
for some time followed by slow cooling.
The aim of spheroidizing annealing is to improve the
machinability of steel.
In this process the cementite is converted into spheroidal
form.
The holding time varies from 15 – 25 hours.
Figure 12.6 The microstructure of
spheroidite, with Fe3C particles
dispersed in a ferrite matrix (× 850).
(From ASM Handbook, Vol. 7, (1972),
ASM International, Materials Park, OH
44073.)
4. Process Annealing
In process annealing, the cold worked metal is heated above
its recrystallisation temperature, kept for some time
followed by slow cooling.
4. Process Annealing
 The aim of process annealing is to restore ductility of the cold
worked metal.
deformed crystal undeformed crystal

recrystallization annealing

 During process annealing, recovery and recrystallization takes

place.
 During process annealing, new equiaxed, strain-free grains
nucleate at high-stress regions in the cold-worked microstructure,
and hence hardness and strength decrease whereas ductility
increases
 Process Annealing
 Cold work : mechanical deformation of a metal at relatively low
temperatures. Thus, cold working of a metal increases significantly dislocation
density from 108 (annealed state) to 1012 cm/cm3, which causes hardness and the
strength of the metal.
Example --- rolling, forging, and drawing etc.
• % cold work = (A0 - Af)/A0 x 100%,
where A0 is the original cross-
sectional area and Af is the final
cross-sectional area after cold Cold-rolling
working.
• With increasing % cold work, the
hardness and strength of alloys are
increased whereas the ductility of
Cold-drawing
the alloys are decreased.
• For further deformation, the ductility
has to be restored by process
annealing.
 Process Annealing
 Annealed crystal (grain) deformed or strained crystal
Cold work (high energy state)
 When a metal is cold worked, most of energy goes into plastic deformation to
change the shape and heat generation. However, a small portion of the energy, up to
~5 %, remains stored in the material. The stored energy is mainly in the form of
elastic energy in the strain fields surrounding dislocations and point defects
generated during the cold work.

 Process Annealing : Cold worked grains are quite unstable due to the strain
energy. By heating the cold worked material to high temperatures where sufficient
atomic mobility is available, the material can be softened and a new microstructure
can emerge. This heat treatment is called process annealing where recovery and
recrystallization take place.
 Process Annealing

 Recrystallization : occurs at 1/3 to 1/2 Tm.

deformed crystal undeformed crystal

recrystallization annealing
during recrystallization process, new equiaxed, strain-free grains nucleate at high-stress
regions in the cold-worked microstructure, and hence hardness and strength decrease
whereas ductility increases.
Recrystallization temp. is that at which recrystallization just reaches completion in 1 hour.
Variation of recrystallization temperature with
percent cold work for iron
 ©2003 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.

Figure 12.4 Schematic summary of the simple heat treatments for (a)
hypoeutectoid steels and (b) hypereutectoid steels.
Example 12.2 SOLUTION
From Figure 12.2, we find the critical A1, A3, or Acm, temperatures
for each steel. We can then specify the heat treatment based on
these temperatures.
Stages of Annealing
There are three stages of annealing

1. Recovery
2. Recrystallization
3. Grain Growth
Recovery
the relief of some of the internal strain energy of a
previously cold-worked material.
 Recovery
 Relieves the stresses from cold working
 Recovery involves annihilation of point defects.
 Driving force for recovery is decrease in stored energy from cold work.
 During recovery, physical properties of the cold worked material are
restored without any observable change in microstructure.
 Recovery is first stage of annealing which takes place at low temperatures of
annealing.
 There is some reduction, though not substantial, in dislocation density as
well apart from formation of dislocation configurations with low strain
energies.
 Recovery
The concentration of point defects is decreased and dislocation
is allowed to move to lower energy positions without gross
microstructural change.
Recovery
 Let us now examine the changes that occur when a sample is
heated from room temperature.
 At first, recovery occurs in which there is a change in the stored
energy without any obvious change in the optical microstructure.
 Excess vacancies and interstitials anneal out giving a drop in the
electrical resistivity.
 Dislocations become mobile at a higher temperature, eliminate
and rearrange to give polygonisation.
 Modest effects on mechanical behavior
 Changes in Mechanical Properties
during Annealing
Annealing temperature
and Mechanical Properties
for a Brass
Polygonisation
 Polygonisation occurs during recovery.
 Dislocations become mobile at a higher temperature, eliminate
and rearrange to give polygonisation.
 The misorientation θ between grains can be described in terms of
dislocations
 Inserting an edge dislocation of Burgers vector b is like forcing a
wedge into the lattice, so that each dislocation is associated with a
small change in the orientation of the lattice on either side of the
extra half plane.
 If the spacing of dislocations is d, then
θ = b/d
Polygonisation

(a) Random
arrangement of
excess parallel
edge dislocations
and
(b) alignment into
dislocation walls
Changes in Microstructure during
different stages of Annealing
Recrystallization
the formation of a new set of strain-free grains
within a previously cold-worked material.
 Recrystallization
 This follows recovery during annealing of cold worked material. Driving
force is stored energy during cold work.
 It involves replacement of cold-worked structure by a new set of strain-free,
approximately equi-axed grains to replace all the deformed crystals.
 This process ocurs above recrystallisation temperature which is defined as
the temperature at which 50% of material recrystallises in one hour time.
 The recrystallization temperature is strongly dependent on the purity of a
material.
 Pure materials may recrystallize around 0.3Tm, while impure materials may
recrystallise around 0.4Tm, where Tm is absolute melting temperature of the material.
 Effect of alloying elements on
Recrystallisation Temperature
Increase in the recrystallisation temperature of pure copper
by the addition of 0.01 atomic percent of the indicated
element

Added element Increase in recrystallisation Temp. (C)

 Ni 0
 Co 15
 Fe 15
 Ag 80
 Sn 180
 Te 240
Recrystallization laws
 A minimum amount of deformation is needed to cause recrystallisation (Rx).
 Smaller the degree of deformation, higher will be the Rx temperature.
 The finer is the initial grain size; lower will be the Rx temperature.
 The larger the initial grain size, the greater degree of deformation is
required to produce an equivalent Rx temperature.
 Greater the degree of deformation and lower the annealing temperature, the
smaller will be the recrystallized grain size.
 The higher is the temperature of cold working, the less is the strain energy
stored and thus Rx temperature is correspondingly higher.
 The recrystallisation rate increases exponentially with temperature.
Rate of Recrystallisation
 Rate of Recrystallisation = Ae-Q/RT

 Taking log of both sides Log (Rate) = -Q/RT

 Or Log(Rate of recrystallisation) is proportional to 1/T

 Recrystallization

 Recrystallisation : occurs at 1/3 to 1/2 Tm.

deformed crystal undeformed crystal

recrystallization annealing

during recrystallisation process, new equiaxed, strain-free grains

nucleate at high-stress regions in the cold-worked microstructure,
and hence hardness and strength decrease whereas ductility
increases.
Recrystallization temperature is that temperature at which
recrystallization just reaches completion in 1 hour.
Recrystallization
The dislocation density decreases only a little during
recovery and the deformed grain structure is largely
unaffected by recovery.
It takes the nucleation and growth of new grains to initiate a
much larger change, i.e. recrystallisation.
Recrystallization
 The nucleation of new grains happens in regions of high
dislocation density.
 Nucleation begins in a jumble of dislocations. The recrystallised
grain will essentially be free from dislocations.
 A greater nucleation rate leads to a finer ultimate grain size.
 There is a critical level of deformation below which there will be
no recrystallisation at all.
 A critical strain anneal can lead to a single crystal on
recrystallisation.
 Recrystallization
 The processed of recovery and recrystallization of a cold worked represent a
structural transformation, not true phase transformations. The driving force for
recovery and recrystallization is associated with the strain energy stored in the
crystal as a result of cold work.

↑ the amount of cold work

↑ grain size before cold work ↑ number of strain-free nuclei
↑ annealing temp.
Changes in Microstructure during
different stages of Annealing
 Changes in Mechanical Properties
during Annealing
Annealing temperature
and Mechanical Properties
for a Brass Alloy
Grain Growth
the increase in average grain size of a
polycrystalline material.

D - Do = kt1/2

Where D is the grain diameter after time t and

And Do is initial grain diameter
 Grain growth
 Grain growth follows complete crystallization if the material is left at
elevated temperatures.
 Grain growth does not need to be preceded by recovery and
recrystallization; it may occur in all polycrystalline materials.
 In contrary to recovery and recrystallization, driving force for this process is
reduction in grain boundary energy.
 Tendency for larger grains to grow at the expense of smaller grains is based
on physics.
 In practical applications, grain growth is not desirable.
 Incorporation of impurity atoms and insoluble second phase particles are
effective in retarding grain growth.
 Grain growth is very strongly dependent on temperature
Grain Growth
 A grain of radius r has a volume 4/3(πr3) and surface area 4πr2. The
grain boundary energy associated with this grain is 2πr2γ where γ is
the boundary energy per unit area. and we have taken into
account that the grain boundary is shared between two grains. If
follows that:
 energy per unit volume = 3γ/2r≡ 3γ/D
 where D is the grain diameter
 It is this which drives the growth of grains with an equivalent
pressure of about 0.1 MPa for typical values of γ = 0.3Jm−2 and D
= 10μm. This is not very large so the grains can readily be pinned
by particles.
 Grain Growth
Grain Growth
dn - d0n = Kt1/2
Changes in Microstructure during
different stages of Annealing
 Grain growth
 Grain growth :
A large concentration of grain boundaries (fine grain structure) is reduced by
grain growth that occurs by high temp. annealing. The driving force for the
grain growth is the reduction in the grain boundary surface energy.

Stages of the
recrystallization
and grain growth
of brass
 Recrystallization and grain growth of
brass
(a) Cold-worked

(b) Initial stage of

recrystallization
(3 s at 580°C)

(c) Partial replacement

of cold-worked
grains by
recrystallized ones
(4 s at 580°C) a b c

(d) Complete
recrystallization
(8 s at 580°C)

(e) Grain growth after

15 min at 580°C.

(f) Grain growth after

10 min at 700°C
d e f
©2003 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.

steels.
Figure 12.5 The effect of
carbon and heat treatment on
the properties of plain-carbon
 Effects of microstructure
Hardness Ductility