Non-destructive evaluation of magnetic anisotropy associated with crystallographic texture of interstitial free steels

Interstitial free (IF) steels, as third generation of deep drawing steel, are used in the automotive industry for applications requiring good formability, strength and a superior surface quality. The formability is achieved by having a strong gamma fibre (γ-fibre) crystallographic texture and is quantified by measuring the r-value from tensile tests. Whereas the crystallographic texture is typically measured using EBSD or XRD on samples after careful surface preparation, it is desirable to be able to evaluate it non-destructively on production material. To do this aim, a magnetic anisotropy measurement is an attractive approach as the magnetic behaviour of steel is known to be affected by its crystallographic texture. A set of interstitial free steel samples, at different stages of recrystallisation process (i.e., commercially cold rolled and annealed to achieve fully and partially recrystallised microstructures) and consequently different texture components have been employed to study the measurement and possibility of model-wise predicting magnetic anisotropy in IF steels. In order to compare the predicted magnetic anisotropy to the measured values, a finite element (FE) microstructure model that takes into account crystallographic texture was applied. The findings indicate that the non-destructive technique deployed in this study - a U-shaped electromagnetic (EM) sensor that can be placed onto a sheet specimen - is promising for a rapid assessment of the magnetic anisotropy in IF steels