Analysis of Deformation Texture in AISI 304 Steel Sheets

The textures of cold-rolled AISI 304 austenitic steel were the object of the investigations. The austenite steel was deformed by cold-rolling to 20, 40 and 70% reduction. A significant amount of martensite, formed due to the strain induced (gamma ->alpha') transformation, was detected in the deformed structure by applying magnetic and X-ray diffraction methods. Texture analysis was performed on the basis of the orientation distribution functions (ODFs) calculated from the experimental pole figures. The texture measurements of both phases were conducted from the center layers of the cold-rolled strip. In the case of metastable austenite AISI 304 steel the texture development was very complex because three processes were proceded simultaneously during the cold-rolling, namely: plastic deformation of the austenitic gamma-phase, strain induced phase transformation gamma ->alpha' and deformation of the formed alpha'-martensite. These processes resulted in the presence of two phases in the structure of the steel with a definite crystallographic relationship and orientation changes of both phases with increasing of the deformation. Thus, the resultant deformation texture of the investigated steels is described by the austenite and martensite texture components. The rolling texture of gamma-phase describes mainly orientations from the fiber alpha =<110>parallel to ND and the major components of the martensite deformation texture are orientations from the fibers alpha(1)=<110>parallel to RD and gamma={111}parallel to ND.