Dislocation densities and internal stresses in large strain cold worked pure iron

Polycrystalline samples of Fe-0.005%-C were deformed by torsion at 300 K far into stage IV of deformation and investigated by X-ray peak profile analysis (XPA) for the microstructural evolution. The long-range internal stresses \Delta tau(w)-Delta tau(c)\(tau(w), tau(c) are the shear stresses in the cell wall and cell interior regions) pass through a maximum at the onset of stage IV, but reincrease within stage IV at higher deformation. A similar maximum is observed in the formal dislocation density derived directly from XPA which, however, is not seen in residual electrical resistivity. These results can be consistently explained by the assumption that in stages II and III the cell walls are formed as polarized dipole walls (PDW) which in stage IV change into polarized tilt walls (PTW), similarly to recent findings in cold rolled Cu. The significant constancy of total volume fraction of cell walls as well as of specific internal stresses in stage IV confirm the importance of the PTW's for stage IV strengthening. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.