Deformation Texture of Bulk Cementite Investigated by Neutron Diffraction

Understanding the deformation mechanism of cementite such as on a slip plane is important with regard to revealing and improving the mechanical property of steels. However, the deformation behavior of cementite has not been well investigated because of the difficulty of sample preparation given the single phase structure of cementite. In this study, by fabricating bulk single phase cementite samples using the method developed by the authors, the deformation texture formed by uniaxial compression was investigated using both electron back scatter diffraction and neutron diffraction. The fabricated sample had a random texture before the compression. After applying a compressive strain of 0.5 at 833 K, (010) fiber texture was formed along the compressive axis. It has been suggested from this trend that the primary slip plane of cementite is (010).