Partial Texture Analysis

The texture is the orientation distribution function of the crystallites of a polycrystalline sample. Beinga continuous function of three variables, it requires a large number of values for its completedescription. The texture can be expressed in terms of a series expansion. It then requires a largenumber of coefficients for its complete description. When all functional values or all coefficients aredetermined from experimental measurements we speak of complete texture analysis. The mostimportant methods for complete texture analysis are individual orientation measurements of a largenumber of crystals and pole figure measurement followed by pole figure inversion. If only a limited number of values of the texture function or a few of its coefficients are beingdetermined we speak of “partial texture analysis”. The most important methods of partial textureanalysis are the fixed angle texture analyzer and the measurement of the anisotropy of physicalproperties such as Young's modulus magnetic properties, thermal expansion and others.