Crystallographic texture of warm caliber-rolled low carbon steel

The evolution of crystallographic texture with effective strain up to 5.9 is studied in low carbon steel bars fabricated using multi-pass warm caliber rolling. Three-dimensional finite element analysis was carried out to evaluate distributions of effective strain accumulated and strain components introduced with each pass through the rolled bars. The texture at characteristic deformation sites on the cross section in the bars was analyzed using the electron back-scattered diffraction method. Although the texture in the area around the center is dominated by a strong alpha-fiber (RD // [101]), in the other two areas, an alpha-fiber texture is not produced. It is clarified that this difference depends on three deformation modes during rolling. Consequently, the areas around the corners, where effective strain of over 5.7 is introduced, are filled with ultrafine ferrite grains of below 680 nm, and the texture in the areas is random regardless of the increase of the effective strain under a bi-directional simple compressive condition.