ABSTRACT
Abstract. Characteristics of the crystallographic texture and deformation microstructure were studied in a type 316L austenitic stainless steel, deformed in rolling at 900°C to true strains of about 0.3 and 0.7, using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The texture was mainly characterised by rotations towards the a fibre orientations with increasing strain. At the lower strain level, there was considerable evidence of a rotation of the pre-existing twin boundaries from their original orientation relationship, as well as the formation of highly distorted grain boundary regions and deformation bands. The subgrains were predominantly arranged in elongated bands, the boundaries of which frequently approximated to traces of the { 111} slip planes. The corresponding misorientations were generally small and largely displayed a non-cumulative character across the band widths, while displaying a tendency to cumulate strongly along the band lengths. Misorientation axis vectors appeared non-crystallographic and were largely clustered around the macroscopic transverse direction. At the higher strain level, general characteristics of the deformation microstructure remained qualitatively similar to those observed at the lower strain. However, the subgrain dimensions became finer, the corresponding misorientation angles increased and both these characteristics became less dependent on a particular grain orientation. The extended sub-boundaries largely appeared to maintain an approximately constant inclination towards the rolling plane within the strain interval used. The obtained statistically representative data will assist in the development of physically-based models of microstructural evolution during hot deformation of austenitic stainless steels. .
