Evolutions of texture and grain boundary plane distributions in a ferritic stainless steel

Abstract

The grain size, textures and grain boundary plane distributions in a cold-rolled and annealed ferritic stainless steel were investigated by means of EBSD techniques. The results show that, following cold rolling with the thickness reduction of 85%, relatively low temperature (780°C) annealing brings an extremely sluggish grain growth and no grain texture develops when the annealing time varies from 5 min to 480 min. The free energy reduction of the system is mainly caused by the grain boundary plane re-orientation in addition to minor grain growth because the distributions of grain boundary planes are moderately preferred on {100} according to the five parameter analyses (FPA) concerning the grain boundary plane characteristics. However, in the case of high-temperature (1 000 °C) annealing, the average grain size does not increase until annealing time is prolonged to 90 min, after which extensive grain growth occurs and strong {100} 〈hkl〉 texture emerges whereas nearly random grain boundary plane distributions are observed. The free energy reduction of the system is most likely attributed to the selective growth.

Keywords

grain texture / grain boundary plane / EBSD / ferritic stainless steel

References

[1] HuhM. Y., EnglerO.. Effect intermediate annealing on texture, formability and ridging of 17%Cr ferritic stainless steel sheet [J]. Materials Science Engineering A, 2001, 308(1/2): 74-87

[2] ShinH. J., AnJ. K., ParkS. H.. The effect of texture on ridging of ferritic stainless steel [J]. Acta Materials, 2003, 51(16): 4693-4701

[3] RajibS., RayR. K., BhattacharjeeD.. Microstructural and textural changes in a severely cold rolled boron-added interstitial-free steel [J]. Scripta Materials, 2007, 57(9): 257-260

[4] YanH. T., BiH. Y., LiX., XuZ.. Microstructure, texture and grain boundaries character distribution evolution of ferritic stainless steel during rolling process [J]. Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 2009, 209(5): 2627-2631

[5] ArafinM. A., SzpunarJ. A.. A new understanding of intergranular stress corrosion cracking resistance of pipeline steel through grain boundary character and crystallographic texture studies [J]. Corrosion Science, 2009, 51(1): 119-128

[6] WilliamsG. O., RandleV.. Grain boundary crystallography in two Fe-C-P alloys [J]. Materials Science and Technology, 2004, 20(5): 599-604

[7] RohrerG. S., SayorD. M., DasherB. E., AdamsB. L., RollettA. D., WynblattP.. The distribution of internal interfaces in polycrystals [J]. International Journal of Materials Research and Advanced Techniques, 2004, 95(4): 197-214

[8] RandleV.. ’special’ boundaries and grain boundary plane engineering [J]. Scripta Materials, 2006, 54(6): 1011-1015

[9] RandleV., RohrerG. S., MillerH. M., ColemanM., OwneG. T.. Five-parameter grainboundary distribution of commercially grain boundary engineered nickel and copper [J]. Acta Materials, 2008, 56(10): 2363-2373

[10] RandleV., RohrerG. S., HuaY.. Five-parameter grainboundary analysis of a titanium alloy before and after low-temperature annealing [J]. Scripta Materials, 2008, 58(3): 183-186

[11] BelyakovA., TsuzakiK., Kimura. Comparative study on microstructure evolution upon unidirectional and multidirectional cold working in an Fe-15%Cr ferritic alloy [J]. Materials Science and Engineering A, 2007, 456(1/2): 323-331

[12] SimG. M., AhnJ. C., HongS. C.. Effect of Nb precipitate coarsening on the high temperature strength in Nb containing ferritic stainless steels [J]. Materials Science and Enginering A, 2005, 396(1/2): 159-165

[13] SayorD. M., DasherB. E., AdamsB. L., RohrerG. S.. Measuring the five-parameter grain boundary distribution from observations of planar sections [J]. Metallurgy and Materials Transaction, 2004, 35A(7): 1981-1989

[14] HUMPHREY F J, HATHERLY M. Recrystallization and related annealing phenomena [M]. Oxford: Elsevier, 2004: 379.

[15] ThomsonC. B., RandleV.. “Fine tuning” at Σ3n boundaries in nickel [J]. Acta Materials, 1997, 45(12): 4909-4916

[16] LejcekP., HofmannS., PaidarV.. Solute segregation and classification of [100]_tilt grain boundaries in α-iron: Consequences for grain boundary engineering [J]. Acta Materials, 2003, 51(16): 3951-3963

[17] RandleV., HuY., ColemanM.. Grain boundary reorientation in copper [J]. Journal of Materials Science, 2008, 43(11): 3782-3791