Microstructural characterization of ultrafine-grain interstitial-free steel by X-ray diffraction line profile analysis

This paper highlights the microstructural features of commercially available interstitial free (IF) steel specimens deformed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) up to four passes following the route A. The microstructure of the samples was studied by different techniques of X-ray diffraction peak profile analysis as a function of strain (ε). It was found that the crystallite size is reduced substantially already at ε=2.3 and it does not change significantly during further deformation. At the same time, the dislocation density increases gradually up to ε=4.6. The dislocation densities estimated from X-ray diffraction study are found to correlate very well with the experimentally obtained yield strength of the samples.