Modeling dynamic recrystallization of olivine aggregates deformed in simple shear

Experiments by Zhang and Karato [1995] have shown that in simple shear dislocation creep of olivine at low strains, an asymmetric texture develops with a [100] maximum rotated away from the shear direction against the sense of shear. At large strain where recrystallization is pervasive, the texture pattern is symmetrical, and [100] is parallel to the shear direction. The deformation texture can be adequately modeled with a viscoplastic self-consistent polycrystal plasticity theory. This model can be expanded to include recrystallization, treating the process as a balance of boundary migration (growth of relatively underformed grains at the expense of highly deformed grains) and nucleation (strain-free nuclei replacing highly deformed grains). If nucleation dominates over growth, the model predicts a change from the asymmetric to the symmetric texture as recrystallization proceeds and stabilization in the "easy slip" orientation for the dominant (010)[100] slip system. This result is in accordance with the experiments and suggests that the most highly deformed orientation components dominate the recrystallization texture. The empirical model will be useful to simulate more adequately the development of anisotropy in the mantle where olivine is largely recrystallized.