On the influence of austenite content in orientation selectivity and shear texture evolution during hot rolling of Fe-3 wt% Si grain-oriented electrical steel

A systematic investigation of the development of shear textures during hot rolling of Fe – 3 wt% Si steel has been carried out in the present work with a special focus on the influence of austenite in preferential orientation selectivity. This orientation selectivity was anticipated owing to the fact that texture evolution during thermomechanical processing is entirely an effect of crystallographic rotations and such rotations may experience constraining effects because of surrounding austenite. The influence of austenite on shear texture evolution was studied over a range of finish rolling temperatures (FRTs). The evolution of microstructure and microtexture within the surface-subsurface zone was studied adopting EBSD. Sharp Goss orientation was observed at lower FRT, while texture intensities of Brass and Copper were observed to be high at higher FRT. Additionally, it was inferred that in the surface-subsurface zone, next to the austenite, the ease of rotation about ND contributed to the higher observed frequency of the Brass orientation despite of its overall lesser fraction as compared to Copper orientation. The less observed frequency of Copper orientation near the austenite has been attributed to the resistance offered by the austenite to its adjacent ferrite grains while rotating about TD. This constraining effect of austenite has been shown to be consistent over the entire range of studied FRTs. Moreover, it has been shown that at higher rolling temperatures, the lower constraining effect by austenite paves the way for Goss orientation formation, which acts as the precursor to the formation of Brass at the FRT. •Effect of austenite on local texture evolution in Fe - 3 % Si steel hot band unveiled.•Prominence of Cu-orientation in overall sub-surface zone was highest across all FRTs.•Near austenite, frequency of Brass orientation observed to be highest across all FRTs.•Hard austenite constrains rotation of Goss orientation about TD to Cu-orientation.•Constraint about TD leads to rotation of Goss about ND to softer Brass orientation.