The Determination of Preferred Orientation in Rolled Electrical Steels Using Single Diffraction of Neutrons
The Determination of Preferred Orientation in Rolled Electrical Steels Using Single Diffraction of Neutrons
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Date
1963
Authors
Eugenio, Manuel
Advisor
Duffey, Dick
Citation
Abstract
Preferred orientation in rolled electrical steels has
been determined using single diffraction of neutrons from
the University of Maryland pool-type nuclear reactor (DMR)
operating at 10 KW thermal .
X-rays are used extensively to determine preferred
orientations in metallic wires and rolled sheets, but
X-rays suffer the disadvantage of high absorption and
cannot be used effectively on thick samples without chemical
or mechanical treatment which ultimately results
in the destruction of the samples. The use of reactor
neutrons for this purpose is believed to offer particular advantages such as the use of thicker samples and
wider beams. To this end, neutrons from the UMR were
scattered directly from metallic sheet samples to obtain
diffraction patterns from which preferred orientations
of the crystallographic axes could be deduced.
The neutron diffraction data were obtained in the
form of : 1) Maxwellian curves; and 2) rocking curves. To obtain the first type of curve, the sample and neutron
detector were rotated at a 1-to-2 angular ratio, respectively, and the diffraction pattern was essentially the
Maxwellian neutron energy distribution. From the maximum
of the Maxwellian curve, the crystallographic plane mainly responsible for the reflection was calculated; from
this, the main orientation was deduced. For the second
type of curve, the sample was rocked back and forth, with
the neutron detector fixed, and the resulting pattern was
used to infer the variation of a given crystallographic
direction about its main orientation.
The results of this study, particularly on grain-oriented and cube-textured silicon-iron (Si-Fe) alloy
sheets demonstrate that single diffraction techniques
can be used to determine preferred orientation in highly
oriented materials. The results on Si-Fe sheets described
as non-oriented indicate the possibility that these techniques
may be applicable to ordinary rolled metallic
sheets, which are not highly oriented.