A new perspective on adiabatic shear failure

Adiabatic shear failure is commonly considered to be induced by thermal softening, for which a critical strain describes the onset of failure. This paper revisits this concept on the basis of experimental evidence showing that the homogeneous temperature rise prior to localization often remains quite modest. Instead, we consider the dynamically stored energy of cold work as a key factor in the process, whose role is to trigger dynamic recrystallization (DRX) at an early deformation stage where thermal effects are negligible. DRX, which precedes the localization instead of being its result, causes local softening of the material. The dynamically recrystallized enclaves are believed to grow and coalesce into a fully developed adiabatic shear band.