Orientation selection by nucleation and growth in highly strained low carbon steels

By means of orientation imaging microscopy measurements on partially recrystallized highly strained ultra-low carbon steels, it is demonstrated that both oriented nucleation and selective growth play important roles in the formation of the annealing texture during static recrystallization. In the initial stages of recrystallization, the nucleation of {111} grains occurs predominantly in the highly fragmented regions of the deformed microstructure. It is shown that in-grain shear bands appear both in //RD and //ND fibre grains, although the RD Fibre grains display a far more homogeneous deformation structure than the ND fibre grains. After 70% rolling reduction, the {111} fibre of the nucleation texture displayed a characteristic curvature with respect to the ideal ND fibre. By analyzing the shear bands that were observed in deformed (and recovered) ND fibre orientations this curvature could be attributed to the crystal rotations occurring within these bands