Preferred orientation of rolling-induced epsilon martensite in an Fe-Mn-Si alloy

Abstract

Preferred orientation of epsilon martensite induced by cold rolling is studied in an Fe-27Mn-3.5Si alloy. Since the flat rolling is essentially a plane strain condition, cold rolling is applied to induced the martensite. The alloy consists of stacking faults and thermal epsilon martensite with some variants in gamma matrix. By cold rolling, epsilon mariensite plates are preferably induced with a single variant, producing a preferred orientation. Rolling-induced 6 martensite is observed to possess a preferred orientation of(1013)epsilon [3032]epsilon. It is revealed that the [3032]E and normal direction of (1013)epsilon experience the largest contraction and expansion, respectively, in gamma-->E shear deformation when c/a is almost (8/3)(1/2).