Effect of anisotropic microstructure on magnetic Barkhausen noise in cold rolled low carbon steel

We have measured the orientation and depth dependence of the magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) in an industrial pipeline steel sheet. Thin samples were cut out from the sheet cross section at different depths, parallel and transverse to the rolling direction (rolling and transverse samples). The integrated MBN energy has shown no depth dependence for transverse samples. On the other hand, the rolling samples have shown larger MBN noise energy and strong depth dependence. The microstructure of the samples was studied by optical and electron microscopy, parameters related to the shape and the quantity of carbon precipitates and grains were extracted by image processing techniques. The strong depth and orientation dependence of the MBN have been explained by changes of the grain and precipitate microstructure.