Orientation rotation at grain boundary regions associated with neighboring orientations in Fe-3.0 wt.% Si non-oriented silicon steel has been investigated by crystal plastic simulation. Rotation tendency relative to a certain target orientation is evaluated by deviation angle variation. Taking ideal λ (//ND, normal direction) as the target orientation, the deviation angle of scattered {001} <uv0> orientations at grain boundary regions affected by neighboring orientations during rolling is calculated and verified by experimental measurements. The rotation tendency and rotation velocity field at grain boundary regions are significantly changed by neighboring orientations. According to the neighbor affected orientation rotation, the initial texture can be precisely designed to control the deformation texture at grain boundary regions.

Texture and microstructure evolution during high-temperature plane-strain compression in Fe-3.0 wt.% Si alloy has been investigated by micro-texture analysis and modeling. In this study, hot deformation test is performed on the temperature range of 900 °C~1150 °C with a strain rate scope of 0.01 s⁻¹~5 s⁻¹, and the effect of deformation parameters is investigated by means of electron backscattered diffraction. Nucleation and growth assisted by strain-induced boundary migration result in strong {001} and {001} texture components with low Taylor factors, and the grain size of λ fiber increases significantly by consuming the {111} and {111} texture components with high Taylor factors. The critical Taylor factor above which nucleation by strain-induced boundary migration cannot occur, decreases continuously during hot deformation. With the decreasing critical Taylor factor, the increment rate of low-Taylor-factor orientation depends more sensitively on Taylor factor than the decrement rate of high-Taylor-factor orientation. The boundary separating enhanced and weakened orientations moves towards lower Taylor factor with the deformation proceeding, and medium-Taylor-factor texture components may experience a reversed change from enhancement to weakness. A quantitative model is proposed to describe texture development by incorporating the oriented nucleation probability dependent on a variable critical Taylor factor and the selective growth driven by a variable Taylor factor difference between adjacent grains. The present work can provide an efficient method for optimizing hot deformation texture by means of strain-induced boundary migration.

High-temperature plane-strain compression tests were performed on Fe-3.0 wt.% Si alloy from 900 °C to 1150 °C at strain rates of 5 s⁻¹ to 1 s⁻¹, and the texture development from different initial textures was investigated by means of electron backscattered diffraction. Dynamic recrystallization occurs by strain-induced boundary migration, and the evolutions of the microstructure and different texture components vary with the initial texture. The critical orientation boundary separating the weakened and enhanced texture components moves with the initial texture, and a quantitative relationship is established to represent the dependence of the critical Taylor factor on the instantaneous texture. A model is proposed to describe the dynamic recrystallization texture by incorporating the oriented nucleation probability with a variable critical Taylor factor. The present work could improve the accuracy of hot deformation texture prediction based on strain-induced boundary migration.