Recrystallization of a cold rolled trip-assisted steel during reheating for intercritical annealling

A TRIP-assisted steel, with a conventional composition containing 0.11 % C, 1.53 % Mn and 1.26 % Si, and a hot band microstructure composed of ferrite , martensite and carbide particles, was cold rolled with a reduction of 70 %. Partially recrystallized samples were obtained by water quenching the co ld roiled sheets which were reheated at a constant rate of 10 degreesC/s to temperatures in the range between 525 degreesC (<A(c1)) and 800 degreesC ( >A(c3)). It was demonstrated that the recovery and recrystallization behavi our was critically controlled by the carbide formation and growth during th e initial stages of the annealing treatment. No interaction was observed be tween recrystallization and transformation phenomena as the static recrysta llization was already completely finished before the start of the alpha --> gamma phase transformation. The microtexture observations obtained by orie ntation imaging microscopy have revealed that the (111)//ND fibre which dom inates the annealing texture at the end of the static recrystallization alr eady starts to develop at the initial nucleation stage. The {111}(110) fibr e component which is slightly favoured in the recrystallization texture tog ether with other less common BCC annealing components quickly disappear fro m the ferrite texture after the start of the phase transformation, which co uld be related to the preferential presence of redissolving carbide particl es in these components.