Fig. 12

A zoom on a new (sub-)grain boundary generated in the six grain microstructure due to kink band formation, c.f. Figs. 3 and 6 (the grain boundary appears in the lower left corner of the microstructure in those figures). From top to bottom the images show the orientation, the dislocation density \(\rho \), the norm of the curvature \(|\nabla \theta |\), the phase-field \(\phi \), and the resolved shear stress \(\tau \) (ranging from \(-\,160\) to 230 MPa). The evolution is shown from left to right: just after deformation and then after 5 min, 1 h, and 2 h of deformation. It appears that the reoriented bands (blue above and yellow below) are slightly fragmented, with scattered darker spots. As the microstructure evolves, the reoriented bands start to vanish except for these spots, which appear to remain. In the stored energy, blue regions appear at the same positions, indicating that static recovery has taken place there