A study of the heterogeneity of plastic deformation in IF steel by EBSD

The objective of this experimental study is to recognize the roles of several quantities like grain size and orientation distributions on the development of plastic heterogeneities. The measurements are performed on an interstitial free (IF) steel by Electron Back Scattered Diffraction (EBSD) at different states of deformation (from 0% to 17% tensile deformation). For each level of deformation, EBSD maps are performed before and after the deformation on exactly the same area. Several parameters as the Grain Orientation Spread (GOS), the Grain Orientation Spread over the grain Diameter (GOS/D) and the Geometrically Necessary Dislocation (GND) densities can thus be determined for different subpopulations of grains ranked as a function of individual grains sizes to follow the evolution of the deformed-induced microstructure. It appears that none of these grain scale measures are deciding and that grain neighborhood interactions play an important role. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.