Development of preferred orientation in annealing of Fe-3.25% Si in a high magnetic field

Annealing of a cold-rolled Fe-3.25%Si sheet having {111}〈112〉 preferred orientation is performed in a high magnetic field in order to control microstructure orientation. Magnetic field (10 T) was applied in a direction parallel to the rolling direction. Distributions of orientation and misorientation of primary recrystallization grains in the magnetically annealed specimens are characterized with electron backscattering pattern analysis. Magnetic annealing is found to enhance the selection of 〈001〉 axis alignment parallel to the rolling direction in the {hk0}〈001〉 recrystallization texture and to favor the occurrence of low energy grain boundaries in the recrystallized microstructure. The high frequency of low angle grain boundaries results in the appearance of coarse grains with traces of faint prior grain boundaries, suggesting extensive operation of the mechanism of grain coalescence. As a cause of selective formation of 〈100〉 grains in recrystallization, magnetostriction induced by applying a magnetic field is suggested.