A Study of the Annealing Kinetics in Cold Worked Copper

The resoftening kinetics for cold work in copper have been studied using residual resistance as a measure of the degree of recovery. The specimens were quickly heated to the annealing temperature, held at temperature for a measured time, and quenched for measurement. It was assumed that the cold work could be characterized by a number of lattice defects n and that the residual resistance change produced by these defects obeyed Matthiessen's rule. It was found that the resoftening could be represented by a single process of activation energy 28.3 kilocalories per mole. The complete annealing kinetics are described by a fourth-order reaction, dn/dt=−vn4e−E/RT.