Orientation dependence of strain stored energy and its effect on recrystallization texture in non-oriented silicon steel

The crystal plasticity finite element simulation and experiment were used to study the orientation flow and strain stored energy accumulation of different initial texture components during cold rolling in non-oriented silicon steel. The results show that strong alpha and gamma as well as weak lambda deformation textures are formed after cold rolling. The recrystallization texture consists of gamma, alpha, eta and lambda components, whose orientation densities are dependent on cold rolling reduction. With the increase of cold rolling reduction, lambda recrystallization texture increases gradually, eta recrystallization texture increases first and then decreases, gamma recrystallization texture decreases first and then increases, while alpha recrystallization texture is weakened slightly. The strain stored energy during cold rolling has a significant dependence on initial grain orientation that the initial gamma orientation has a similar or evidently higher strain stored energy accumulation rate below or above 50% reduction compared with initial alpha orientation, while lambda keeps the lowest strain stored energy accumulation rate during cold rolling. Particularly, the different initial orientations rotating to an identical deformed orientation may cause an obvious difference in strain stored energy accumulation rate. The development of recrystallization texture in non-oriented silicon steel is determined by orientation flow and strain stored energy accumulation in various texture components during cold rolling.