Textural index for martensitic and bainitic steels to assess influence of hot rolling mode on parent austenite structure before quenching

Abstract

To assess a state of parent austenite before the steel quenching, a scalar textural index for martensite and bainite is introduced in terms of EBSD orientation data. Deformed and recrystallized states of the parent phase are discriminated by the sign of this index, whereas its magnitude in each of the two reflects the texture sharpness depending on the hot rolling mode. Accordingly, in a virtual case of randomly distributed orientations the considered parameter vanishes. Performance of the proposed approach is demonstrated on medium carbon martensitic steel hot rolled at laboratory conditions and on industrial rolled plates of low carbon bainitic steel.