Yoshihiro Arita

Effect of Aluminum and Titanium Content on Grain Growth, Texture and Magnetic Properties in 3%Si Non-Oriented Electrical Steel

The effect of annealing temperature on grain growth, texture development and magnetic properties of Al-free and Al-1% added non-oriented electrical steel were investigated. Normal grain growth occurred in Al-free steel. On the other hand, abnormal grain growth occurred in Al-added steel which was annealed at 800°C for 24h. Precipitates in these two steels were different. TiN precipitated in Alfree steel, but in the case of Al-added steel, AlN and TiC precipitated. The TiC in Al-added steel was so fine that it inhibited the normal grain growth and finally caused the abnormal grain growth. Main textures of both steels were near {111}<112>, but the intensity of near {111}<112> in the abnormal grain growth was higher than that in the normal grain growth. Magnetic flux density (B50/Bs) was decreased by the grain growth. Especially B50/Bs in the abnormal grain growth was lower than that in normal grain growth. B50/Bs in these steels can be estimated by their three-dimensional textures in vector method.

Orientation Selectivity of Secondary Recrystallization in Grain-Oriented Silicon Steel

It has been observed that grain size of Goss secondary grain has a strong correlation with deviation angle from the exact Goss orientation and sharper Goss grain has larger grain diameter. This orientation selectivity of secondary recrystallization has been investigated with the statistical model of grain growth in which inhibitor and texture are taken into account. The model assumes that sharper Goss grain has a higher frequency of CSL boundaries to the matrix grains and thus has lower statistical grain boundary energy and suffers lower pinning force from the inhibitor. The analysis showed that this model successfully explains orientation selectivity and depicts the effect of inhibitor and texture.

Texture Change during Grain Growth in Non-Oriented Electrical Steel

Texture change during grain growth in Fe-3%Si non-oriented electrical steel was investigated. Cold rolled steel, 0.35mm in thickness, was annealed and recrystallized as an initial structure. Normal grain growth and abnormal grain growth occurred by additional annealing. {111} was dominant in the initial texture. However {100} component, which was not in majority in the initial structure, became stronger after normal grain growth. It was revealed that an average grain size of {100} in the initial structure was bigger than those of other components by analysis of the EBSD data,. Therefore, it is concluded that {100} strengthened after normal grain growth due to its size advantage. On the other hand, {111} components became more stronger after abnormal grain growth. It is inferred that another mechanism of the texture change worked in abnormal grain growth.