Study of texture and microstructure evaluation of steel API 5L X70 under various thermomechanical cycles

This work studies the influence of different thermomechanical paths on the microstructure and crystallographic texture across the thickness of API 5L X70 pipeline steel manufactured via hot rolling using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD). The starting materials were controlled hot-rolled at 1000 °C to 44% and 67% reductions and subsequently heat treated with such processes as annealing, water quenching and quench tempering at three different temperatures to evaluate the microstructure and crystallographic texture changes across the thickness. The banded ferrite-pearlite microstructure of the initial material was changed to acicular ferrite, quasi-polygonal ferrite, granular bainite, martensite and retained austenite via different heat treatments. Moreover, different thermomechanical paths induced crystallographic texture variations across the thickness, e.g., {112}//ND, {111}//ND 1 (γ fibre), and {011}//ND fibres dominated on the surface plane in contact with the rolls, whereas {001}//ND and particularly the (001)[1 1 0] texture component developed in the centre plane on which shear deformation has a zero value in this region. In this study, a simple interpretation of texture evolution was analyzed by comparison with the orientation changes that occurred during different rolling schedules and post-treatment processes.