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Modelling and simulation of recrystallization, grain growth, and related phenomena are important tools for the fundamental understanding of microstructural evolution that takes place during the annealing and thermomechanical processing of steel. It is also important for the prediction of engineering properties. In this paper, the evolution of mean grain radius and the recrystallized volume fraction of steel was modelled using the statistical theory of grain growth originally developed by Lücke [1] and here integrated to take into consideration the effect of recrystallization. In particular, the effect of one free input parameter (initial distribution of grain radii) of the model is analysed without taking into account the textures effect.

Eurofer97 steel has been recognised in Europe as the reference steel for nuclear application under high radiation density. Following to this a detailed knowledge of microstructure evolution is required for such steel after thermo-mechanical processing. In this paper the effect of thermo-mechanical parameters on the mechanical behavior of Eurofer97 was investigated by hot rolling and heat treatment on pilot scale. Results show a strong effect was found of reheating temperature before rolling on the material hardness, due to an increase of hardenability following the austenite grain growth. A minor effect was found of the hot reduction and the tempering temperature in the total investigated deformation range. A loss of impact energy was found coupled with the hardness increase.