Step 1: Concept Annealing is a heat treatment process that involves heating a material above its critical temperature and holding it there.
Step 2: Meaning Maintaining a high temperature for an extended duration provides the thermal energy required for atoms to rearrange and boundaries to migrate.
Step 3: Analysis While standard annealing improves ductility and reduces hardness, keeping the steel at temperature for too long leads to the merging of smaller grains into larger ones.
Step 4: Conclusion Therefore, prolonged exposure during annealing primarily results in grain growth, which can eventually degrade mechanical properties.
Final Answer: (D)