Tracking the evolution of abnormal grain growth in grain-oriented electrical steels by coercivity measurements

Abstract

The measurements of coercivity were utilised to investigate the main evolution stages of abnormal grain growth in grain-oriented electrical steels. The investigated grain-oriented steels were taken from industrial line after final cold rolling. The steels were subjected to short time annealing at elevated temperatures with high heating rates. The coercivity measurements carried out within the present work were confronted with microstructure and texture analysis in order to show the direct dependence of the measured coercivities on metallurgical characteristics of the investigated steel. It is shown that the coercivity measurements technique could capture main microstructural changes taking place in recrystallization.