XRD and EBSD analysis of anisotropic microstructure development in cold rolled F138 stainless steel

• Published in: Materials characterization 2017-01, Vol.123, p.137-152
• Main Authors: De Vincentis, N.S., Avalos, M.C., Benatti, E.A., Kliauga, A., Brokmeier, H-G., Bolmaro, R.E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ANISOTROPY; AUSTENITIC STEELS; BACKSCATTERING; COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS; CRYSTALS; DEFECTS; DEFORMATION; DISLOCATIONS; Electron Backscatter Diffraction; ELECTRON DIFFRACTION; GRAIN SIZE; MATERIALS SCIENCE; MECHANICAL PROPERTIES; Microstructure anisotropy; STAINLESS STEELS; SYNCHROTRON RADIATION; X-RAY DIFFRACTION; X-RAY SOURCES
• ISSN: 1044-5803; 1873-4189
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matchar.2016.11.018

The microstructural characteristics of deformation-processed materials highly influence their mechanical properties. For a complete characterization of a microstructure both local and global information must be gathered, which requires the combination of different analysis techniques. X-ray and Electron Backscatter Diffraction were used in the present paper to characterize the deformation induced in a cold rolled F138 austenitic stainless steel sample. The results obtained using laboratory and synchrotron X-ray sources were compared and combined with EBSD quantitative results, allowing the global and local characterization and orientation dependence of the deformation microstructure. A particular behavior was observed in the XRD data corresponding to the planes with ∥ND, likely due to a smaller amount of defects accumulated in the crystals with that particular orientation. EBSD was used to separate the scans data into partitions and to calculate misorientation variables and parameters, showing that this behavior can be attributed to a combination of larger grain sizes, lower local boundary misorientations and dislocation densities for crystals having ∥ND. Several conclusions, of general validity for the evaluation of microstructure anisotropy, can be extracted from the results. •Combined XRD and EBSD for studying microstructure gave a superb insight on anisotropic accumulation of defects.•W-H and CMWP methods were applied for checking consistency of results.•XRD showed that a smaller accumulation of defects occurred in crystals with ∥ND.•High brilliance X-ray beam allowed to study the anisotropy of defect accumulation.