Evolutions of texture and grain boundary plane distributions in a ferritic stainless steel

The grain size, textures and grain boundary plane distributions in a cold-rolled and annealed ferritic stainless steel were investigated by means of EBSD techniques. The results show that, following cold rolling with the thickness reduction of 85%, relatively low temperature (780A degrees C) annealing brings an extremely sluggish grain growth and no grain texture develops when the annealing time varies from 5 min to 480 min. The free energy reduction of the system is mainly caused by the grain boundary plane re-orientation in addition to minor grain growth because the distributions of grain boundary planes are moderately preferred on {100} according to the five parameter analyses (FPA) concerning the grain boundary plane characteristics. However, in the case of high-temperature (1 000 A degrees C) annealing, the average grain size does not increase until annealing time is prolonged to 90 min, after which extensive grain growth occurs and strong {100} aOE (c) hkl > texture emerges whereas nearly random grain boundary plane distributions are observed. The free energy reduction of the system is most likely attributed to the selective growth.