Evolution of texture and microstructure during deformation and annealing of Fe3AI based alloy

The development of texture during warm rolling and annealing of a Fe-28 at. %Al binary Fe3AIbased inter metallic alloy has been studied using the pole figure and ODF(orientation distribution) methods. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy have been employed to determine the constituent phases. Electron microscopy revealed that the microstructure of the starting hot rolled material comprises of a B2 phase phase matrix with DO) particles embedded within. This observation is also supported by the observed XRD data. XRD results also suggest that heavy amount of deformation can disorder the material up to a certain extent. The hot rolled material texture is characterized by the presence of a broad -fibre peak between the {I 12}<110> and {111}<110>positions, along with a low intensity fibre end a week fibre. Warm rolling at 500°C up to 80% deformation does not change the texture in a way apart from sharpening the starting texture components. However, warm forming in the B2 phase field, i.e. at 650°C, shows a texture transition after 60% deformation, with the texture maxima gradually shifting forwards the {OOI} position. Annealing at 750°C results in a drastic decrease in the and fibre intensities and a significant improvement of the 11-fibrewith a maxima at the {OOI}<100> Cube location.