Effects of annealing on grain-boundary character distribution and texture evolution in hot-rolled Fe-6.5 wt% Si steel

In this paper, the effects of annealing on grain-boundary character distribution and texture evolution were investigated in hot-rolled Fe-6.5 wt% Si steel. An annealing treatment performed at different temperatures affected the recrystallization behavior and changed the volume fraction of low-angle and coincidence site lattice (CSL) boundaries. High frequencies of coincidence boundaries Σ3, Σ9, Σ13, and Σ27 were observed in all annealed samples, while the annealing temperature can lead to a large difference in frequencies for Σ13. The effect of crystallographic texture on the directional dependence of the specific magnetic energy in the rolling plane of investigated sheets was calculated and discussed. These results demonstrate the possibility of optimizing grain-boundary character distribution (GBCD) and texture to improve the magnetic and mechanical properties of Fe-6.5 wt% Si steel by controlling annealing temperature.