Evolution of Microstructure, Properties and Texture of a Two-Phase Low-Carbon Steel at Cold Asymmetric Rolling

Asymmetric rolling allows shear strains in a material to be pre-determined, along with a corresponding texture, resulting in a refinement of the microstructure and enhancement of the mechanical properties. However, the effect of asymmetric rolling, with high values of asymmetric factor on metals with a multi-phase microstructure has not been thoroughly investigated yet. Thus, experiments are conducted involving asymmetric cold rolling of ferrite-pearlite low-carbon steel with the 1:4 ratio of rolls speeds, as well as a comparison to conventional symmetric rolling. The microstructure, as well as the texture of asymmetrically rolled strips are, then, analyzed and compared with symmetrically rolled specimens. This analysis shows significant grain refinement in both symmetrically and asymmetrically rolled strips due to the formation of developed cellular dislocation substructures. Analysis of texture in strips after two passes of asymmetric and symmetric rolling show the presence of isotropic texture component {111}<112>, which leads to the so-called texture strengthening. Furthermore, in asymmetric rolled strip an axial texture {110}<UVW> with axis coinciding with normal direction is also observed, that is, an important component of shear texture.