  The origin of cube recrystallization texture in medium to high stacking-fault
energy fcc metals has been debated for almost 70 years. Despite numerous
experimental and simulation studies, many issues regarding the nucleation and
growth of cube grains remain unresolved. Here we apply a full field crystal
plasticity model utilizing a dislocation density based constitutive theory to
study the deformation and texture evolution in copper (Cu) under plane strain
compression. Additionally, we use the phase field method, along with a
stochastic nucleation model, for static recrystallization simulations.
Simulation results show that the volume fraction of the cube component during
deformation decreases with increasing strain. Although cube grains are not
stable during plane strain compression, some of the non-cube grains rotate
towards cube and develop narrow cube bands near the grain boundary region. With
increasing deformation, the cube component accumulates dislocation density
faster than other texture components. High stored energy in the cube regions
leads to preferential nucleation of cube grains during static
recrystallization. These cube nuclei originate from the intergranular cube
bands. Although the cube component has a clear nucleation advantage, none of
the texture component appears to have a growth advantage. Instead, simulation
results show that heterogeneous distribution of nuclei has a profound influence
on the resulting grain size distribution. During recrystallization, a
significant increase in cube volume fraction is observed mainly due to high
nucleation frequency of cube grains.
