An Evaluation of the Single Orientation Method for Texture Determination in Materials of Moderate Texture Strength

New microscopy technology has made it feasible to consider using single orientation measurements toobtain Orientation Distribution Functions (ODF). Single orientations are preferred over pole figuredata in ODF calculations because the odd terms of the series expansion are not directly accessiblewhen pole figures are used. However, the number of single orientation measurements required tocalculate a statistically reliable ODF has generally been considered too large to practically obtain.This study found that the location of the major features of the ODF in rolled aluminum sheet wereidentifiable after only 100 measurements. However, the heights of the peaks and the secondaryfeatures required many more measurements to stabilize. Unless the orientation measurements can beautomated or orientation correlation data is needed the pole figure method remains a more efficientmeans of obtaining the data necessary to measure texture.