Effect of texture and grain size on magnetic flux density and core loss in non-oriented electrical steel containing 3.15% Si

• We produced electrical steel sheets having different grain size and texture.
• Magnetic flux density B and core loss W were varied with grain size and texture.
• Correlation of B and W   with texture was established via anisotropy parameter A(h→).
• With increasing A(h→) a linear decrease of B and a linear increase of W were observed.
• Grain size mainly affected W with only minor impact on B.

In an attempt to differentiate the impact of grain size and crystallographic texture on magnetic properties of non-oriented (NO) electrical steel sheets, samples with different grain sizes and textures were produced and analyzed regarding magnetic flux density B and core loss W. The textures of the NO electrical steel samples could be precisely quantified with the help of elliptical Gaussian distributions. In samples with identical textures, small grain sizes resulted in about 15% higher core loss W than larger grains, whereas grain size only moderately affected the magnetic flux density B. In samples having nearly the same grain size, a correlation of the magneto-crystalline anisotropic properties of B and W   with texture was obtained via the anisotropy parameter A(h→). With increasing A(h→) a linear decrease of B and a linear increase of W were observed.