Effect of Warm-Rolling On the Formation of Microstructure and Microtexture of the Constituent Phases in a Duplex Steel

Abstract\ud \ud The effect of warm-rolling on the evolution of microstructure and microtexture was investigated in a duplex steel. For this purpose annealed duplex steel plates were cold and warmrolled up to 90% reduction in thickness at room temperature and at 625°C, respectively. The austenite volume fraction decreased consistently during cold-rolling indicating that austenite was not stable during cold-rolling. In contrast, austenite was found to be very stable during warm-rolling at 625°C. Development of an ultrafine lamellar deformation structure with alternate arrangement of the ferrite and austenite bands could be observed during warm-rolling. A strong pure metal or copper type texture was observed in the austenite in the warm-rolled material in contrast to brass texture developed during cold-rolling. Development of RD (RD//<110>) fiber and ND-fiber (ND//<111>) was observed in ferrite during both cold and warm-rolling. However, the strength of the RD-fiber was much higher as compared to the ND-fiber in ferrite in cold-rolled DSS as compared to the ferrite in warm-rolled DSS