Applying texture analysis to materials engineering problems

Textures in materials have been studied extensively since the 1930s following the pioneering work of Wassermann. The modern era of texture measurement started in 1949 with the development of the X-ray pole figure technique for texture measurement by Schultz. Finally, modern texture analysis was initiated with the publication by Bunge and Roe of a mathematical method of pole figure inversion, which is now used to calculate the orientation distribution function (ODF). This article cannot summarize such an extensive body of work, but it does endeavor to provide the background necessary to understand texture analysis; it also illustrates several applications of texture.