Texture evolution in hot band and annealed hot bands of low alloyed ferritic stainless steel

Abstract

The texture evolution in hot band and annealed hot bands of low alloyed ferritic stainless steel with about 11 wt-%Cr was experimentally investigated using quantitative texture analysis. While the hot band texture was composed of components of α fibre and in particular δ fibre, its microstructure was a banded structure of mostly relaxed martensite and retained ferrite. Both the texture and microstructure of the hot band was derived from partially recrystallised austenite. During single phase hot band annealing, there was a strong sharpening in the strength of the texture components of δ fibre by strain induced boundary migration of the retained ferrite and formation of fine carbide sheets leading to the persistence of ferrite banding. In contrast, two phase hot band annealing resulted in the formation of a nearly equiaxed duplex ferrite grain structure with an aggregate of precipitated carbides within the transformed ferrite grains and complete elimination of microstructural banding of the hot band, and also led to the occurrence of a texture memory phenomenon.