Special Section on Texture and Microstructure

Abstract

The International Materials Research Congress (IMRC) is organized yearly at Cancun, Mexico, by the Sociedad Mexicana de Materiales (SMM) and the Materials Research Society (MRS). The conference is structured in plenary sessions, poster sessions and specialized symposia. In 2016, the XXVth IMRC conference included a topical symposium devoted to “Texture and Microstructure”. It is worth underlining that this was the very first conference ever organized in Latin America on a topic related to crystallographic texture. This symposium ran over 2 days. The first day was comprised of presentations on Recrystallization, Deformation, and Substructure. The second day continued on Deformation & Substructure, Unique Applications, and Data Acquisition & Processing. Thirteen invited and seventeen regular lectures were presented as well as 3 posters. The symposium co-organizers are pleased that many of the symposium participants have accepted the invitation to submit their work for a Special Section of Advanced Engineering Materials entitled “Texture and Microstructure”. Fifteen papers were submitted for review, eleven of which were accepted for publication. In addition to contributions from the symposium, several articles were invited to complement the research presented in Cancun and we also are pleased that the authors of six additional relevant papers submitted directly to Advanced Engineering Materials accepted our invitation for being included in this Special Section. The study of crystallographic textures was developed to a semi-quantitative theory by the pioneering work of Guenter Wasserman and Johanna Grewen, “Texturen Metallischer Werkstoffe” (Springer-Verlag, 1962), who studied mainly industrial relevant problems by means of the analysis of two-dimensional pole figures. Later, the reference book of Hans Bunge, “Texture Analysis in Materials Science − Mathematical Methods”, offered a rigorous and complete methodology to determine crystallographic textures by means of a statistical Orientation Distribution Function ODF, calculated by pole-figure inversion methods in the frame of spherical harmonic series. Bunge also developed a systematic method to calculate physical properties of textured polycrystals, as a weighted average of the single crystal properties, the weighting function being the ODF. The next milestone was the determination of individual orientations with Electron Backscattered Diffraction EBSD, where David Dingley made much of the pioneering work. After Brent Adams’ team (including his PhD student Stuart Wright) developed the first fully automated EBSD system they coined the term “Orientation Imaging Microscopy” to describe the technique. Dingley and Adams founded the start-up TSL to provide the first commercial OIM systems. Several companies currently offer automated EBSD systems capable of measuring the local orientation of the grains, the distribution and characteristics of the grain boundaries, the various phases, the local deformation, etc. However, the scientists interested in texture analysis should keep in mind that the statistical population sampled by EBSD is not the same as that by X-rays, since the penetration depth of X-rays is at least hundred times larger than that of electrons. But conversely, the electrons offer much better local resolution enabling the texture to be linked directly to the microstructure. The topic “textures” enjoys special attention from AEM. After the Special Issue “Texture and Microscopy” in 2003, the Special Issue “Texture and Anisotropy” in honor of Prof. Richard Penelle, University Orsay Paris Sud in 2010, with this Special Section “Texture and Microstructure”, all scientists interested in this topic will have in their hand a collection of papers offering a broad and actual covering of the topic. The Special Section opens with two review papers, one on fine-grained magnesium alloys by SPD, the other on electromagnetic coupling, followed by a communication on fatigue cracking resistance of bimodal Ti-6Al-4V alloys. Then, the reader will find 19 full papers covering all measurement techniques, neutron diffraction and Time of Flight neutron diffraction, X-ray diffraction and EBSD, including EBSD coupled with XEDS. The papers cover a broad variety of processing techniques, rolling, wire drawing, hot temperature extrusion, various techniques of Severe Plastic Deformation, e.g. Accumulated Roll Bonding, hot rectangular extrusion, ECASD. The reader will also find information on heat treatment and on epitaxial deposition of thin films. The materials studied are steel, aluminum composites, titanium alloys, magnesium alloys, and the currently widely studied Multi-Component Alloys (NiCoAlFeCu(Cr,Ti) in this Special Section). We are confident that with the papers included in this Special Section and the many references offered in the literature quoted, the reader will find useful information and inspiration for his own research work on “Texture and Microstructure”. Finally, this Special Section could not have been achieved without the constant, efficient and generous help of Sandra Kalveram, Editor-in-Chief at AEM. We express to her our deepest gratitude for her gigantesque help.