“…The sample after 4-pass of DSR operations showed the highest microhardness value owing to the ultrafine grains and high dislocation density. At temperatures below 773 K, the microhardness value of the annealed samples was reduced due to the rearrangement and annihilation of dislocations [24,25], indicating that static recovery dominated. This result was in good agreement with the previous microstructural observation of the annealed IF steel samples at the same temperatures, in that the ill-defined grain boundaries gradually disappeared whereas the sharp grain boundaries began to appear without any significant change in the grain size.…”