Variant selection and the evolution of γ and α texture in an 800 MPa grade hot rolled low carbon micro-alloyed complex steel

Abstract The ambient textures and their evolutions in an 800 MPa grade hot rolled low carbon micro-alloyed complex steel were analyzed. The prior austenite were firstly reconstructed and subsequently, determined the prior austenite texture unambiguously and calculated the corresponding variant fractions. It was found that the ambient texture was concurrently determined by the parent austenite texture and variant selection during the following phase transformation. The major prior austenite texture were B {0 1 1}〈2 1 1〉 and {0 1 1}〈5 3 3〉. They primarily give rise to the ambient transformation γ texture of {1 1 1}〈 2 3 - 1 〉, {1 1 1}〈2 5 - 3〉 and {1 1 1}〈 1 - 2 - 3 〉 by the selection of B1 or B2 group and α texture of {0 0 1}[1 1 0] by the selection of B3 group. The austenite textures of {2 1 0}〈3 6 1〉, {6 3 1}〈3 5 3〉, {6 1 8}〈1 2 1〉, also contribute to the overall transformation texture by strong variant selection. However, the austenite texture of Cu {1 1 2}〈1 1 1〉, Goss {1 1 0}〈0 0 1〉, S {1 2 3}〈6 3 4〉 orientations that were commonly transformed in the previous researches were not found in this steel.