Zirconium (Zr) alloys are utilized as structural components for the cores of nuclear reactors due to the excellent combination of their mechanical properties and corrosion resistance under intense neutron irradiation conditions in water. The characteristics of microstructures formed during heat treatments play a crucial role in obtaining the operational performance of parts made from Zr alloys. This study investigates the morphological features of (α + β)-microstructures in the Zr-2.5Nb alloy, as well as the crystallographic relationships between α- and β-phases. These relationships are induced by the β→α(α″) displacive transformation that occurs during water quenching (WQ) and the diffusion-eutectoid transformation that takes place during furnace cooling (FC). To conduct this analysis, samples solution treated at 920 °C were examined using EBSD and TEM. The experimental distribution of α/β-misorientations for both cooling regimes deviates from the Burgers orientation relationship (BOR) at a discrete set of angles close to 0, 29, 35, and 43°. The experimental α/β-misorientation spectra are confirmed by crystallographic calculations for the β→α→β-transformation path based on the BOR. Similar spectra of misorientation angle distribution in α-phase and between α and β phases in Zr-2.5Nb after WQ and FC point to similar transformation mechanisms and the significant role of shear and shuffle in β→α-transformation.

Crystallographic relationships between α- and β-phases resulting from phase transformations, which took place during the continuous water quenching (WQ), air cooling (AC) and furnace cooling (FC) of a Ti6Al4V plates solution treated at 1065 °C, were investigated by methods of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). WQ, AC and FC resulted in typical martensite, basket-weave and parallel-plate Widmanstatten structures, respectively. The experimental distribution of α/β-misorientations deviated from BOR at set discrete angles close to 22, 30, 35 and 43°. The experimental spectra of angles were confirmed by theoretical calculations of the possible misorientations between the α and β phases through the β_o→α→β_II –transformation path based on Burgers orientation relationship (BOR). Joint analysis of the experimental data and theoretical calculations revealed that the secondary β_II-phase was precipitated according to the sequence β_o→α→β_II during continuous cooling from the single-phase β-region. Similar spectra for α/β-phase misorientations for all investigated cooling rates acknowledged the similar transformation mechanisms and dominant shear component of the phase transformations.

Thermo-mechanical controlled processing (TMCP) is employed to obtain the required level of mechanical properties of contemporary high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steel plates utilized for gas and oil pipeline production. The strength, deformation behavior and resistance to the formation and propagation of running fractures of the pipeline steel are mainly determined by its microstructure and crystallographic texture. These are formed as a result of austenite deformation and consequent γ→α-transformation. This present study analyses the crystallographic regularities of the structural and textural state formation in a steel plate that has been industrially produced by means of TMCP. The values of the mechanical properties that have been measured in different directions demonstrate the significance of the crystallographic texture in the deformation and failure of steel products. An electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) method and crystallographic analysis were utilized to establish the connection between the main texture components of the deformed austenite and α-phase orientations. This paper demonstrates that the crystallographic texture that is formed due to a multipath γ→α-transformation results from the α-phase nucleation on the special boundaries between grains with γ-phase orientations. The analysis of the spectra of the α-γ-interface boundary angle deviations from the Kurdjumov–Sachs (K–S), Nishiyama–Wassermann (N–W), and Greninger–Troiano (G–T) orientation relationships (ORs) allows to suggest that the observed austenite particles represent a secondary austenite (not retained) that precipitates at intercrystalline α-phase boundaries and correspond to the ORs with regard to only one adjacent crystallite.

The interest in the crystallography of structural transformations is driven by emerging capabilities in texture control and by the resulting anisotropy of the physical-mechanical properties of functional materials and products. The recrystallization texture of cold-drawn Cu and Al samples after recrystallization annealing at different temperatures was studied using EBSD. Equivalent deformation textures of Al and Cu are transformed into different recrystallization textures. The recrystallization nuclei in Al are formed at high-angle boundaries between deformed grains close to Σ3 CSL boundaries. The recrystallization nuclei in Cu are formed inside the deformed grains at twin boundaries (Σ3). The recrystallization nuclei in both Al and Cu are the crystallites whose boundaries approximately correspond to misorientation rotated about the axis at an angle of 52–70° from a deformed matrix. The physical interpretation of the results will allow for the development of new models and the enhancement of existing models of texture inheritance.