The impact of annealing temperature and time on the grain distribution and texture evolution of cold-rolled electric-furnace annealed low-carbon steel

This study investigated the effect of annealing temperature and time on the grain distribution and textural development of commercial-grade low-carbon steel that undergone cold rolling and subsequent electric-furnace annealing at either 700 or 800 °C for 5 and 10 min. Scanning electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction analyses of the annealed samples revealed equiaxed microstructures with cementite at the ferrite grain boundaries. The samples annealed at 700 °C for 5 and 10 min exhibited a bimodal grain distribution, while larger ferrite grains formed at 800 °C. The orientation distribution function texture of the sample annealed at 700 °C for 5 min exhibited both a γ-fiber ND//〈1 1 1〉 and a cube texture ND//〈0 0 1〉 . Raising the annealing temperature and time reduced the intensity of cube texture and strengthened the γ-fiber, increasing tensile elongation from 8 to 38 %.