Institute of Metals Division - Grain Growth in Silicon Iron

Isothermal salt bath annealing of 0.014-in. thick 3 pct Si-Fe sheet was conducted at temperatures ranging from 927" to 1260°C in order to investigate the grain-growth behavior. Within the temperature range studied normal grain growth did not take place; instead nucleated grain growth prevailed. The nucleation frequency was found to increase with the annealing temperature, with corresponding decrease in grain diameter of ultimate secondaries after long-time annealing. Large secondaries grown by low-temperature isothermal annealing are essentially of (110)[001] orientation, and the (110)[001] texture is strong. The relatively small secondaries grown by high-temperature isothermal annealing also have orientations near (110)[001] as an average but widely scattered; thus the amount of (110)[001] texture is found to decxease with isothermal annealing temperature. Grain growth and texture development at various annealing temperatures can be described by families of sigmoidal curves with the time axis. ThE cube-on-edge (110)[001] texture and predominating large secondaries in fully annealed 3 pct Si-Fe are customarily produced by a 1100°C annealing of a primary recrystallized sheet. On annealing the primary recrystallized sheet above the temperature at which secondary recrystalliza-tion starts May and turnbull' have demonstrated that secondary grains decrease in size as the temperature is increased. The phenomenon was attributed to a decrease in the (G/N) ratio where G is the growth rate of secondary grains and N is their nucleation frequency. In addition, the growth of grains in orientations rather far from (110) [0011 occurred. The present investigation is devoted to detailed rate studies of the same phenomenon. Mi-crostructure, magnetic anisotropy, and texture data were obtained on strips of 3 pct Si-Fe isothermally annealed for various lengths of time in a BaC12 salt bath at temperatures ranging from 927' to 1260°C. The texture results are reported elsewhere.2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Commercial 0.014-in. cold-rolled silicon-iron strip (3.16 pct Si), prepared by two stages of cold rolling with an intermediate short anneal, was given a decarburizing 3-min anneal at 800°C. Metallo- graphic studies indicated complete recrystallization. In order to provide a protective atmosphere and to obtain a rapid rise to an elevated temperature, a BaC12 and NaCl fused salt bath was used to heat samples isothermally at temperatures from 927" to 1260°C for various lengths of time. Torque magnetometer measurements were made on 1-in.-diam disc specimens before and after annealing, since magnetic torque curves supply information on textures and texture changes. Surface layers of the strip samples were polished and etched to reveal the grain structure. The diameters of grains were measured from micrographs at X100. The average value of diameters of matrix grains was established. Individual grains in the micrograph were cut out separately along grain boundaries. These grains were classified either as matrix grains or growth grains. The percent weight of growth grains in the cut-out patterns was reported as percent growth. Manv of the individual grains in the annealed samples were large enough to be X-rayed with a 5-mil beam for Lauegrams. Complete (110) pole figures were obtained for the primary recrystallized structure and short-time annealed structure with CoKa radiation at 30 kv in the back-reflection range, such as (220) for (110) poles, as described recently by Newkirk and ~ruce.~ Both the X-ray optics and the technique for pole figure differed slightly from those adapted previously.4