Control of deformation and annealing process to produce incoherent Σ3 boundaries in Hastelloy C-276 alloy

Hastelloy C-276 samples were cold-rolled with their thickness reduction of 7.5% and 15%, and then annealed at 1100 °C for 5–60 min in solid solution. The grain boundary character distributions (GBCDs) were characterized by a technique of electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD). Results indicated that, more convoluted Σ3 boundaries (i.e. incoherent Ʃ3 boundaries) are generated by reasonable annealing time in low strain (7.5%) sample during strain-induced boundary migration (SIBM) processing. They can induce higher Ʃ3n fraction and activate more interactions between special boundaries for GBE. Instead, more coherent Ʃ3 boundaries were produced by moderate strain (15%) and annealing treatment with the occurrence of static recrystallization (SRX). The recrystallized fine grains possess fewer incoherent Ʃ3 boundaries cannot promote to get more multiple twinning for optimization of GBCD. Therefore, reasonable deformation and annealing treatment parameters lead to more incoherent Ʃ3 boundaries would play an important role in the optimization of GBE.