Orientation related microstructure evolution during continuous annealing of a cold-rolled low carbon steel

The use of OIM allowed to investigate the evolution of the mean grain size of ferrite grains belonging to different texture components during continuous annealing. It has been observed that through a recovery process, a network of boundaries produces mainly inside the deformed gamma-fibre grains. The recrystallised grains appear within this network. At this stage, different criteria have been applied in order to identify recrystallised. grains from the network. The used criterion, affects both the measured grain size and the evolution of the number of computed grains, mainly at the first recrystallisation stages. It has also been observed that recrystallised grains belonging to certain texture components have a significant size and number advantage all along the process, leading at later stages to a hard impingement between clusters of grains belonging to the gamma-fibre.