The Effect of Texture on the Fatigue Properties of Ultrafine-Grained Interstitial-Free Steel

<jats:p>The present paper reports on the effect of texture on the cyclic stress-strain response (CSSR) and the fatigue life of ultrafine-grained (UFG) interstitial-free (IF) steel. Tests in the lowcycle fatigue (LCF) regime were conducted on material that was processed by the equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) technique along the so called “efficient” route 8E. This route has been shown to result in a homogeneous microstructure with a high fraction of high angle grain boundaries (HAGBs), which are beneficial for a stable CSSR. In addition, the evolution of the microstructure was characterized by means of electron optical techniques, including electron backscattered diffraction, and by X-Ray diffractometry. It was found that the initial texture of specimens cut from the ECAE billet along different orientations with respect to the extrusion direction (ED) has a substantial effect on the CSSR of the UFG IF steel. Furthermore, microscopy results indicated the notable influence of the last ECAE processing step on the evolution of damage in the material.</jats:p>