Textural Studies of Thermomechanically Treated Eutectoid Steel

The important class of metallurgical treatments known as thermomechanical treatment (TMT) is especially appropriate for textural studies because the crystallographic disposition of the matrix largely determines the final properties of the material. The current work utilized regular and inverse pole figure measurements of the ferrite matrix in TMT eutectoid steel to monitor the effects of various processing steps such as degree of cold rolling and the temperature and time of rapid annealing. Textural results provided the key to understanding fatigue life differences between longitudinally and transversely oriented sheet samples. The most favored ferrite slip system was not well oriented to act in the transverse samples. This in turn retarded the slip which nucleates fatigue cracking and hence extended the total fatigue life of transverse samples.