A different viewpoint on adiabatic shear localization

This short review addresses the adiabatic shear failure mechanism (adiabatic shear banding-ASB) in metals subjected to high strain-rate deformations. ASB is usually considered as an instability resulting from thermal softening effects. We present a different viewpoint, based on experimental observations in which we identify the stored energy of cold work as the driving force for microstructural rearrangement by dynamic recrystallization (DRX). DRX is an athermal phenomenon that is observed at the early stages of the dynamic deformation process, while thermal effects are insignificant, long before an ASB has formed in the specimen. We tentatively identify DRX as the softening mechanisms whose growth in a localized area will lead to final failure.