Abstract
Recovery of severely deformed ferrite was followed in situ by High Energy X Ray Diffraction during heating and isothermal holding experiments. Dislocation densities during annealing were determined by a modified Williamson Hall method. The deduced recovery kinetics was compared to post-mortem hardness measurements. A temperature dependent saturation of recovery was exhibited during holding. Dislocation density drop and saturation behavior cannot be reproduced simultaneously by the classical physically based models.