Cold rolling behaviour of an austenitic Fe–30Mn–3Al–3Si TWIP-steel: the importance of deformation twinning

The present paper deals with the evolution of microstructure and texture of a TWIP-steel during cold rolling. With increasing strains, different deformation mechanisms become active. TEM observations show the presence of deformation twinning at low strains (ε<0.1). As the strain increases the volume fraction of twins increases. At higher strain levels, non-homogeneous deformation mechanisms such as shear band formation become active. This evolution of the microstructure is reflected in the formation of the texture. The brass orientation {1 1 0}〈112〉 is dominant at every strain level. Its intensity increases as strain increases, while additional texture components develop at different strain levels: the E {1 1 1}〈110〉 and F orientation {1 1 1}〈112〉 as well as the S orientation {1 2 3}〈634〉. Compared to these orientations the copper orientation intensity remains rather low.