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Hot deformation behavior of a ferritic stainless steel stabilized with Nb during

hot rolling simulation at different temperature ranges

Article  in  Journal of Materials Research · February 2016

DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2016.57

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ARTICLES

Hot deformation behavior of a ferritic stainless steel stabilized with

Nb during hot rolling simulation at different temperature ranges
Flávia Vieira Bragaa)
REDEMAT - Rede Temática em Engenharia de Materiais, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto,
Minas Gerais 35400-000, Brazil
Diana Pérez Escobar, Nilton José Lucinda de Oliveira, and Margareth Spangler Andrade
SENAI Institute of Innovation in Metallurgy and Special Alloys, Center for Innovation and Technology
SENAI FIEMG - Campus CETEC, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais 31035-536, Brazil

(Received 28 July 2015; accepted 28 January 2016)

The aim of the present work was to study the effect of the finishing rolling temperature on
interpass recrystallization promotion of an Nb-stabilized AISI 430 steel, via torsion tests
simulation of a Steckel mill. The occurrence of interpass recrystallization was investigated by
interrupting the tests before predetermined passes and analyzing the samples via electron
backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The results revealed that interpass recrystallization can be
promoted by decreasing the initial hot rolling temperature; which results in increased strain
hardening during the passes and therefore, increased stored energy for recrystallization. The
torsion test results concurred with those obtained by EBSD measurements. Furthermore, an
optimum temperature range of 900–840 °C was found to promote interpass recrystallization
during hot rolling.

I. INTRODUCTION
The use of ferritic stainless steels for different appli-
cations has increased over the last years due to their
resistance to corrosion and combination of good mechan-
ical properties and low maintenance requirements1 with
lower cost of production compared to those of the
austenitic stainless steels.2 This reduction in costs stems
mainly from the low additions or absence of nickel,
which, in some cases, makes these steels a viable
alternative to the austenitic stainless steels.
Ferritic stainless steels can develop an undesirable
surface defect, after the cold rolling and/or deep drawing
stage, called ridging or roping.3 This phenomenon,
detracts from the aesthetics of the surface and is related
with the crystallographic texture developed from solidi-
fication.4–7
After solidification, this type of steel presents mostly
f001gÆuv0æ oriented columnar grains, which is generally
considered harmful.8 It is well known that cold rolled
ferritic stainless steels inherit their texture from hot
rolling,9 which in turn, inherit their texture from solidi-
fication. To decrease ridging, this solidification texture
must be somehow reduced/eliminated. This can be
achieved via either phase transformation or mechanical
straining and recrystallization. However, Nb-stabilized
Contributing Editor: Yang-T. Cheng
a)
Address all correspondence to this author.
e-mail: flaviafisica@gmail.com
DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2016.57
AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel, the object of the present
study, does not transform on cooling. Therefore, the only
possibility to change the solidification texture after
thermomechanical processing is by recrystallization.10,11
In the case of ferritic stainless steels, it is well known that
dynamic recovery (DRV) is the dominating softening
mechanism.12–14 This mechanism reduces the stored
energy from deformation, decreasing the driving force
for static recrystallization (SRX). SRX during hot rolling
for ferritic stainless steels can be promoted by an increase
on the strain, an increase on the interpass time, and/or by
using intermediary rolling temperatures (higher temper-
atures favor the recovery and in lower temperatures the
material does not recover nor is recrystallized).11,13
Industrial hot rolling is a complex process. There is, of
course, the possibility of performing industrial scale trials
to optimize temperature ranges which would favor the
occurrence of SRX. However, these trials are expensive,
difficult to conduct and usually samples cannot be taken
from intermediate passes, thus making it impossible to
have details of microstructure evolution during process-
ing. The alternative is to use mechanical testing such as
hot compression or hot torsion.
Different authors have studied the hot deformation
behavior of ferritic stainless steels to reduce/eliminate
ridging and improve drawability.10–12 Hinton and Bey-
non12 studied the softening mechanisms of an AISI 430
ferritic stainless steel in industrial conditions by hot
compression simulation of a Steckel mill. However, the
AISI 430 steel is not stabilized, and thereby suffers from

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 F.V. Braga et al.: Hot deformation behavior of a ferritic stainless steel stabilized with Nb during hot rolling simulation

phase transformation during hot rolling, which affects weight percent is: 16.07 Cr, 0.18 Ni, 0.02 C, 0.20 Mn,
both the restoration mechanisms and the texture 0.48 Si, 0.32 Nb, 0.0017 Al, and 0.0005 S. This steel was
development. produced and supplied by Aperam South America.
Mehtonen et al.10 analyzed the microstructure and
texture development during multipass hot deformation A. Hot torsion simulations
of an stabilized ferritic stainless steel by hot compression Rolling practices at a Steckel type mill at Aperam
simulation of a Steckel mill. They applied two passes at South America steelworks was taken as reference for the
relatively high temperatures, the sample was then cooled hot torsion simulations. Detailed description of the mill is
down to 800 and 650 °C, and the third deformation was given elsewhere.16 Table I gives the industrial data used
applied. They concluded that full recrystallization oc- as base for the simulations. For torsion tests, 7 mm
curred between passes at high temperatures and that, as (diameter)  15 mm (useful length) samples were
the temperature decreased in the third pass, the work machined from 28 mm thick plates, obtained from the
hardened was more preserved, thus having the potential hot roughing mill. The torsion test is commonly used to
to recrystallize during the subsequent annealing that takes simulate high-temperature deformation since the speci-
place after hot rolling. In their case, the steel used did not mens can be severely deformed without rupturing. This
transform on cooling. However, the number of passes test also allows reproducing preheating process of the
given was very limited (just three) and the temperature slabs, deformation, and cooling rates, which are similar to
was rather low, compared to the usual temperatures used those used in industry. Furthermore, the microstructure of
in an industrial process. the samples obtained by high-temperature torsion is also
Oliveira et al.11 reported that recrystallization during similar to that obtained via industrial processing.16–18 The
hot rolling results in both ridging reduction and improved tests were performed on a mechanical testing machine
drawability. Furthermore, addition of Nb as a stabilizer, INSTRON 1125 (Canton, Massachusetts), equipped with
combined with controlled hot and cold rolling, resulted in a torsion unit. An electromagnetic induction coil, con-
steel with superior drawability, lower ridging, and shinier nected to a programmable controller, was positioned
surface than those of the nonstabilized ferritic stainless around the sample to apply different heating and cooling
steels. Nb has been used also as refining microalloying rates. Argon atmosphere was used to protect the samples
element, especially in HSLA (High strength low alloy) from excessive oxidation. Six simulations were per-
steels. The main effect of Nb is the increase of the formed aiming to determine the optimum conditions to
mechanical resistance without the necessity of increasing promotes interpass softening via recrystallization. During
the amount of C, Mn, or other element, due to the delay testing, the torsion samples were heated at a rate of 2 °C
of austenite recrystallization during thermomechanical s1 to 1050 °C, held at temperature for 120 s, and then
processing.15 cooled at a rate of 1 °C s1 to the temperature of the first
In the current work, hot finishing rolling on a Steckel pass. Immediately after that, the deformations were
mill of an Nb-stabilized AISI 430 ferritic steel was imposed according to the temperatures and interpass
simulated via hot torsion tests. This steel does not times specified for each simulation. A total of five passes
transform during cooling, hence changes in texture can were applied with a constant strain rate of 0.3 s1. The
only be promoted from recrystallization. It is then values of true strain (eeq) applied to the sample are
expected that the steel will behave much like that equivalent to those obtained from industry rolling data
reported for Ti–Nb steel. However, by using hot torsion, and calculated as shown below.
it was possible to simulate conditions much more similar
.pffiffiffi
to those found in industry, namely, by applying a larger
eeq ¼ ½2 lnðh1 =h2 Þ 3 ; ð1Þ
number of passes, contrary to the ones used by Mehtonen
et al.10 and Hinton and Beynon.12 The temperatures used
in the experiments were also very close to those practiced
in actual Steckel rolling.
TABLE I. Thermomechanical parameters for industry processing
The aim of the present work is then to simulate this 430Nb steel in a Steckel mill.16
process via hot torsion testing and investigate, within the
restrictions of a Steckel hot rolling schedule, which Final
thermomecanical conditions, largely related to pass Initial thickness True Strain rates Interpass
Pass thickness (mm) (mm) strain (s1) time (s)
temperature, would mostly favor SRX.
1 28.4 19.6 0.43 18.1 48
2 19.6 11.5 0.62 45.9 63
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS 3 11.5 7.1 0.56 72.4 72
4 7.1 5.3 0.34 118.8 132
The chemical composition of the Nb-stabilized 5 5.3 4.1 0.30 41.9 25
AISI430 ferritic stainless steel used in this work, in

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 F.V. Braga et al.: Hot deformation behavior of a ferritic stainless steel stabilized with Nb during hot rolling simulation

where h1 and h2 are the initial and final thickness of the Quanta 650 FEG microscope (Hillsboro, Oregon) equip-
plate, respectively. ped with Oxford High Speed Nordlys Max 2 detector.
The true strain is converted into the torsion angle by The data was collected using an acceleration voltage of
pffiffiffi . 20 kV, a working distance of 18 mm, and a step size of 3
h ¼ 3Leeq r ; ð2Þ lm. Data were analyzed by the OIM™ software. All the
measurements obtained have a confidence index higher
than 0.7 and were cleaned by using grain dilatation and
where: h is the angular displacement, L the length and r
grain CI standardization (grain tolerance angle or 5 and
the radius of the specimen.
minimum grain size of 2). The mean grain size was
Measured values at torque were converted to true stress
measured to analyze the refinement of the microstructure.
using
Measurements were obtained from EBSD data considering
pffiffiffi . a misorientation angle $15°.
req ¼ 3sð3 þ m þ nÞ 2pr3 ; ð3Þ In the present work, the kernel average misorientation
(KAM) was calculated on the basis of first nearest
where: req is the equivalent stress, s the measured torque, neighbors for a maximum misorientation angle of 5°.
m the sensitivity coefficient to angular strain rate, and The grain orientation spread (GOS) was also calculated to
n the sensitivity coefficient to angular strain changes. obtain relevant additional information on the deformed
Table II shows details of the deformation schedules used and recrystallized grains.
in the torsion experiments.

B. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) III. RESULTS

Figure 1 shows a schematic of the sample surface that A. Flow curves

was used for the EBSD analyses; this plane corresponds Figure 2 shows the flow stress curves for the six
to the hZ plane, where the z axis is parallel to the simulations of the finishing hot rolling in the Steckel mill.
horizontal direction of the EBSD maps. It is possible to observe that the stress increases with
For the EBSD measurements, the samples were cut decreasing simulation temperature (listed in Table II).
with an abrasive disc and the entire useful length of From the shape of the curves, it is possible to predict the
15 mm was mounted, ground, and polished with 9 and type of dynamic softening suffered by the material. They
1 lm diamond paste. After this, the samples were can be distinguished from one another by start temper-
polished with colloidal silica for 40 min. The longitudinal ature at the first pass and temperature at the last pass, as
section of the sample was prepared to a depth of 0.1 mm displayed in Fig. 2. Hence 1050–990 °C means simula-
below the surface; microstructural analysis was per- tion 1 and 900–840 °C, simulation 6.
formed near the sample surface on a ;2 mm width The level of the stress–strain curves increases as
section. The EBSD maps were collected using a FEI temperature decreases, as expected. The shape of the
curves are however very similar in all experiments, that
is, all curves indicate the occurrence of recovery as the
TABLE II. Hot torsion parameters used in the simulations.
sole dynamic softening mechanism. When passes were
Temperature of the pass for the given at higher strains, case of passes 1 to 3 in which
simulations (°C) strains were respectively 0.43, 0.62, and 0.56, even then,
Pass True strain Interpass time (s) 1 2 3 4 5 no dynamic recrystallization happened. In these passes,
the flow curves reach a plateau, in special in the case of
1 0.43 48 1050 1020 990 960 930
curves seen at higher temperatures (the simulation run at
2 0.62 63 1035 1005 975 945 915
3 0.56 72 1020 990 960 930 900 1050–990 °C). This is typical behavior for hot resistance
4 0.34 132 1005 975 945 915 885 of 430Nb steel. So it can be concluded that, under the
5 0.30 25 990 960 930 900 870 conditions tested, the steel was always dynamically
softened by dynamic recovery only.
Other important information that can be obtained from
stress–strain curves shown in Fig. 2(g) is the fractional
softening between deformations. The fractional softening
(%S) can be calculated by,
r3  r2
%S ¼ ; ð4Þ
r3  r1

FIG. 1. Scheme of the analyzed region for the torsion samples.

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 F.V. Braga et al.: Hot deformation behavior of a ferritic stainless steel stabilized with Nb during hot rolling simulation

FIG. 2. Flow stress curves of the finishing hot rolling for (a) simulation 1, (b) simulation 2, (c) simulation 3, (d) simulation 4, (e) simulation 5, and
(f) simulation 6. The temperatures indicated refer to the temperature of the first and last passes. Figure (g) shows schematics used in the calculation
of fractional softening between passes.

which is very often used in the case of hot deformation of
austenite.19 However, in the case of ferritic steels, it seems,
the use of a parameter like this may be not very effective
or conclusive, but it may be used to indicate trends.
Parameter S may not be very effective in pointing out
explicitly small differences from pass to pass as in the
case of passes 1 to 3 in all simulations. It is, however,
more effective in pointing out trends, though. In this
sense, fractional softening computed between passes 4
and 5 is clearly different from those calculated between
passes 1 to 3. In the case of passes 4 and 5 the fractional
softening is around 50% or less. Also, DRV is not

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 F.V. Braga et al.: Hot deformation behavior of a ferritic stainless steel stabilized with Nb during hot rolling simulation

effective enough in passes 4 and 5 when compared to Figure 4 shows EBDS maps which were performed for
previous passes and the shapes of the curves in passes 4 samples with torsion simulations finishing at lower
and 5 display some work hardening. In this way, the temperatures, namely, simulation at temperature ranges
results seem to indicate almost full softening in the group of 960–900, 930–870, and 900–840 °C. Simulation 1
of passes 1 to 3 and some work hardening retained in the (1050–990 °C) was also studied to compare with the
group 4–5. lower temperature simulations.
The KAM results were used to evaluate the mean
B. EBSD misorientation of a pixel, based on the comparison of the
Figure 3 shows the corresponding inverse pole figure orientation of n layers of neighboring pixels that consti-
maps obtained from postprocessing the EBSD data resulting tute a kernel; i.e.,
from the simulations. After simulation, micrographs show
1X n
elongated grains, which are consistent with comments just hKAM
i ¼ Dhij ; ð5Þ
made on the shape of the stress–strain curves and fractional n j¼1
softening calculated from the flow curves.

FIG. 3. Inverse pole figure maps of the samples after finishing rolling simulation: (a) simulation 1, (b) simulation 2, (c) simulation 3, (d) simulation
4, (e) simulation 5, and (f) simulation 6.

FIG. 4. Grain misorientation, kernel average misorientation and grain orientation spread results for the complete simulations 1, 4, 5, and 6.

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 F.V. Braga et al.: Hot deformation behavior of a ferritic stainless steel stabilized with Nb during hot rolling simulation
The KAM can be also be used to characterize the
spatial distribution of stored energy in a sample since its
relationship to the dislocation density allows a direct
comparison between the different levels of deformation
in the same EBSD map.20,21 In general, high (.1°) KAM
is obtained for deformed grains, owing to their high
density of dislocations. In contrast, recrystallized grains
have low (,1°) KAM.22 In the KAM maps, blue and red
regions have the lowest and highest dislocation density,
respectively.
The GOS is the average deviation in orientation
between each point in a grain and the average orientation
of the grain. This approach leads to assigning the same
value to every scan point contained within the grain.23 It
is mathematically expressed as:
8 2 0 h i 139
< 1
trace gave ðhi gA Þ  1 = explained by the fact that a grain, which recrystallized
1X N
GOS ¼ f ðxÞ ¼ min4cos @
1 A5
N A¼1 : 2 ;
where A indicates the Ath measurement point in a grain
consisting of N measurements, gave is the average
orientation of the grain, gA is the orientation measured
at the Ath position within the grain, and hi is the
appropriate symmetry element yielding the minimum
misorientation angle between the average orientation
and the Ath measurement.24 These calculations were
used to distinguish the recrystallized grains from the
deformed ones.
Interpass recrystallization was also investigated by
interrupting rolling simulations 1, 4, 5, and 6 and
analyzing the samples via EBSD. These interruptions
were done prior to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th passes.
Simulations 2 and 3 were not studied since the results
from the torsion test and EBSD were similar to those
obtained for simulation 1. The interrupted torsion tests
allowed the analysis of the microstructures formed
between the passes. Figures 5 and 6 show the grain
boundary misorientation and KAM and GOS, respec-
tively, as obtained from the EBSD data of interrupted
simulations 1, 4, 5, and 6. The results from the inter-
rupted tests and complete simulations were separated
since the samples from the interrupted tests were
quenched after waiting for period equivalent to the
interpass times (listed in Table II). However, in the
complete simulations, the samples were quenched imme-
diately after the last deformation pass.
The number fraction of low and high angle grain
boundaries, as defined by misorientation angles was
lower and higher than 15°, respectively, was calculated
from the EBSD data obtained from the samples; plotting
these fractions as a function of the equivalent strain
revealed the evolution of nucleation of these boundaries
with applied strain, as shown in Fig. 7.
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As Fig. 7(a) shows, the number fraction of high angle
grain boundaries decreased with temperature and applied
strain, while those of their low angle counterparts in-
creased. These results are consistent with the stress–strain
curves [Fig. 2(a)], since the material softens predomi-
nantly by recovery, as evidenced by the increase of
subgrains in the microstructure; the results also concur
with the trends observed in the KAM maps [Fig. 5(a)],
which revealed the increase in the dislocation density
through the passes.
Figure 7(b) shows that the sample that interrupted
before the 4th pass has a higher number fraction of high
angle grain boundaries than those of the other samples.
This confirms the occurrence of recrystallization, as
previously discussed. However, the fraction of subgrains
(,15°) increases in the subsequent pass. This can be
; during the interpass time, may strain harden or soften by
recovery during subsequent passes, thereby increasing
ð6Þ the number fraction of subgrains. In addition, the KAM
maps show that the energy accumulation is high for the
complete simulation [Fig. 5(b)] and low (as indicated by
the blue-colored regions) in the sample interrupted before
the 4th pass.
The results [Fig. 7(c)] from this simulation 5 are
similar to those obtained for simulation 4. However, the
number fraction of subgrains is slightly lower than that
resulting from simulation 4. This difference indicates that
the microstructure was more refined in simulation 5 than
in simulation 4, although the number fractions resulting
from the complete simulations are very similar.
These results are consistent with the stress–strain curves
[Fig. 2(e)], which indicated that recrystallization occurred
between the 3rd and 4th passes. This occurrence was
evidenced by the pronounced difference between the
maximum stress of the 3rd pass and the yield tension
of the 4th pass. Furthermore, the KAM maps revealed
that the energy accumulated in the sample interrupted
before the 3rd pass is lower than that of its counterpart in
simulation 4. This difference stems from the fact that
a higher fraction of the sample recrystallized in the
former than in the latter. The difference is further related
to the temperature of initiation of simulation 5, which is
lower than that of simulation 4. This decrease on
temperature increases the amount of strain hardening,
and hence the dislocation density in the sample, relative
to that of its counterpart in simulation 4. Since the
dislocation density is the driving force for recrystalliza-
tion, the sample from simulation 5 was therefore more
recrystallized than its counterpart from simulation 4.
Figure 7(d) shows the results of simulation 6, where
the behavior of the material differs from those of the
other simulations. The number fraction of high angle
grain boundaries is higher than the fraction of subgrains
for the samples interrupted before the 3rd and 4th pass.
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 F.V. Braga et al.: Hot deformation behavior of a ferritic stainless steel stabilized with Nb during hot rolling simulation

FIG. 5. Grain misorientation and kernel average misorientation results from the interrupted (a) simulation 1, (b) simulation 4, (c) simulation 5, and
(d) simulation 6.

FIG. 6. Grain orientation spread results from the interrupted simulation 1, simulation 4, simulation 5, and simulation 6.

However, the behavior is inverted for the 5th pass. The
recrystallized grains may have strain hardened during the
subsequent (5th) pass and may have then softened via
static recovery, which resulted in an increase in the
number fraction of subgrains. These results concur with
the stress–strain curve. Moreover, the KAM results
showed that the sample interrupted before the 3rd pass
was even more recrystallized than the sample, which
underwent simulation 5.
From the GOS results, presented in Fig. 6, it is clear
that in simulation 1, the material softens predominantly
by recovery, since there is no evidence of recrystalliza-
tion in the samples (blue grains), which concurs with the
results discussed above. It is also possible to observe the
difference between the gave from simulations 1, 4, 5, and
6. This parameter allows separating the deformed and
recrystallized grains: the grains having orientation spread
less than the average GOS were recrystallized and the

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 F.V. Braga et al.: Hot deformation behavior of a ferritic stainless steel stabilized with Nb during hot rolling simulation
FIG. 7. Equivalent strain as a function of the grain misorientation (a) simulation 1, (b) simulation 4, (c) simulation 5, and (d) simulation 6.
FIG. 8. Mean grain size before the 5th pass for simulation 1, 4, 5,
and 6.
ones having greater orientation spread were deformed for
each of the conditions.25 It is clear from Fig. 6 that
decreasing the temperature simulation improves the re-
crystallization of the sample. Also it is possible to
observe that simulation 6 has a more recrystallized
microstructure due to the lower gave and the higher
presence of recrystallized grains (blue grains).
The mean grain size of the complete simulations 1, 4,
5, and 6 is presented in Fig. 8. As the figure shows, just
before the last pass of the simulation, the grain size
resulting from simulation 6 is the smallest of all the grain
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sizes; this result is consistent with the stress–strain curve
and EBSD results presented above.
C. Microtexture results
Figure 9 shows the microtextures resulting from the
interrupted and complete simulations. The results from
simulation 1 were not included since the number of
grains in the samples was insufficient to perform a reliable
statistical analysis of the microtexture.
Some of the important ideal torsion orientations and
their respective Euler angles for a-iron are listed and their
position in the {110} pole figure and the orientation
distribution function (ODF) plot are shown in Fig. 10. As
the figure shows, some of the pole figures are tilted away
from their symmetrical position and some of the compo-
nents in the ODFs are shifted (or rotated away) from their
ideal positions. This phenomenon was also observed by
Baczynski and Jonas26 who attributed this deviation to
the level of strain in the sample. In addition, the in-
tensities of the typical glide components, F and J,26,27
increase with increasing strain27; and the J1 and J2
f110gÆ112æ texture components are formed first and
dominate at low strains. Moreover, when the strain is
increased, the intensities of the E1 and E2 f110gÆ111æ
components decrease and the intensity of D2 increases26;
the recrystallization texture is also composed primarily of
the D1ð112Þ½111, D2ð112Þ½111, and E2ð011Þ½111 un-
der these conditions.
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 F.V. Braga et al.: Hot deformation behavior of a ferritic stainless steel stabilized with Nb during hot rolling simulation

FIG. 9. Microtexture results from the interrupted (a) simulation 4, (b) simulation 5, and (c) simulation 6, (d) complete simulations 4, 5, and 6.
Calculation method: Discrete binning. Levels 1, 1.4, 1.8, . . ..

FIG. 10. The (110) pole figure, ODFs (u2 5 0° and 45°) and Euler angles of some important torsion ideal orientation for the a-iron.26,27

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 F.V. Braga et al.: Hot deformation behavior of a ferritic stainless steel stabilized with Nb during hot rolling simulation
For a given simulation, the microtextures obtained in
this work exhibited, in most cases, small differences with
each deformation pass. These small differences are
attributed to the low amount of strain imparted during
passes and to the partial recrystallization of the sample
during the interpass time.
In simulation 4 [Fig. 9(a)], the texture resulting from
the simulation interrupted before the 3rd pass is com-
posed mainly of D1 and D2; these components are
however, more diffusible compared to their counterparts
in the sample resulting from interruption before the 4th
pass, where the recrystallization components are sharper.
In addition, the presence of the F component suggests
that the sample was deformed and then partially recrystal-
lized during the interpass time, but this recrystallization
was not enough to remove the F component completely.
The intensity of the D2 and J2 components increased in
the sample interrupted before the 5th pass, relative to the
intensities resulting from interruptions before the 4th
pass. These components are typically associated with
increasing strain26,27 as well as recrystallization, and
hence, these results are consistent with those presented
in Fig. 5(b).
For simulation 5 and 6, the results also concur with
those shown in Figs. 5(c) and 5(d), respectively. The
sample clearly recrystallized before the 4th pass, as
indicated by the respective increased and decreased
intensities of D2 and D1, and the absence of any slip
components. Furthermore, the F and J2 component first
appear in the sample before the 5th pass suggesting an
increase in the deformation.
The presence of the D1 and D2 components appears
prominently in the microtextures of the samples from the
complete simulations. In addition, the intense F compo-
nent results from the sample being immediately quenched
after the last pass of deformation; therefore, the sample
was only strain hardened.
IV. DISCUSSION
Results from the flow curves (Fig. 2) and microstruc-
ture (Figs. 4–6) evidence that the main dynamic softening
mechanism during the first three passes is recovery.
Calculated softening fractions of approximately 100%
proved that SRX occurred between passes. However,
DRV was not efficient for the last two passes since
stresses did not achieve a plateau. This evidences an
increase of work hardening when the deformation tem-
perature is decreased.
Mehtonen et al.10 obtained similar results after in-
vestigating the flow stress evolution, microstructure,
texture, dislocations, and precipitation during multipass
deformation of a dual-stabilized 21%Cr ferritic stainless
steel. They observed softening by DRV during the first
two passes applied at 950 °C and SRX during the
10
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interpass time of 20 s. A small fraction of recovered
grains remained in the microstructure, indicating that the
SRX was not complete. In their work, only the last pass
was applied in a different temperature than the two
previous passes. They found that lowering the deforma-
tion temperature resulted in a higher amount of work
hardening, which may accelerate the SRX kinetics during
subsequent hot band annealing stage.13
The coarse grains in the microstructures resulting
from simulations 1 and 2 (Fig. 3) reveal the occurrence
of strain hardening. This is in agreement with results
reported in Ref. 10, that is, full recrystallization
between deformations given at 950 °C and work
hardening at 800 and 650 °C. The latter two temper-
atures reported in Ref. 6, however, are either in the
very low end for a Steckel mill processing or altogether
unrealistic. In the present work, as torsion was used to
simulate the industrial process, a more realistic condi-
tion could be used and hence the results obtained here
may approach better than those found in the industry.
Moreover, Fig. 3 shows that the fragmentation of the
microstructure increases with decreasing simulation
temperature. This refinement of the microstructure
indicates that recrystallization occurred. These results
are consistent with those of the torsion simulations
curves and the ones presented in Fig. 6. The grain
refinement results also concur with those reported by
Gao et al.17 who studied a ferritic stainless steel
microalloyed with Nb and B.
Finally, it was possible to observe that the texture for
all the analyzed simulations was not strong due to the fact
that the total deformation was lower than 2.3 and also due
to the deformation and softening mechanisms between
passes. In consequence, this may reduce the influence of
the texture in the final properties of the 430Nb steel.
Similar results were found by Oliveira.28
Together, EBSD, and flow stress curves, revealed that
the hot rolling simulation in Steckel mill, performed at
temperatures of 930–870° (simulation 5) and 900–840 °C
(simulation 6) is sufficient for promoting interpass re-
crystallization between the three first passes of the AISI
430Nb ferritic stainless steel. Furthermore, the work
hardening obtained from the last two passes of deforma-
tion, will favor the occurrence of recrystallization in the
annealing stage after finishing hot rolling.13 This
recrystallization will give rise to a grain-refined micro-
structure and less texturized material, leading to improved
drawability and reduced ridging in this steel.28
V. CONCLUSIONS
(1) EBSD combined with the analysis of torsion test
curves is an adequate technique to verify the occurrence
of static interpass recrystallization during simulation of
finishing hot rolling in a Steckel mill.
J. Mater. Res., 2016
IP address: 200.130.19.155
 F.V. Braga et al.: Hot deformation behavior of a ferritic stainless steel stabilized with Nb during hot rolling simulation
(2) Interpass recrystallization of the AISI 430Nb ferritic
stainless steel is optimum at temperatures of 930–870 °C
(simulation 5) and 900–840 °C (simulation 6).
(3) The work hardening from the last two passes of
deformation can favor the occurrence of recrystallization
in the annealing stage after finishing hot rolling.
(4) Microtexture results obtained in the present work
concur with those reported in previous studies.
(5) Results obtained in this work could contribute to
the improvement of the established practice of hot rolling.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank CBMM for the
financial and technical support, to Aperam South Amer-
ica for the technical support and for providing the
material for this study, Dr. Marco Antônio da Cunha
for the technical discussions and to LNNanno at CNPEM,
where EBSD analyses were performed. FVB and MSA
would also like to thank the CNPq and CAPES institu-
tions for granting academic scholarships.
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