Effect of Hot-Rolling Temperature on the Texture of N18 Zirconium Alloy Plate

The texture evolution of plates after rolling at different temperatures was investigated. The result shows that after hot-rolling, cold-rolling and re-crystallized annealing, textures of the N18 plates varied, i.e., f_n and f_r increased,and f_t decreased. The effect of the temperature of hot rolling on the texture can be summarized as follows: when hot rolling temperature changed from 750℃ to 780℃, f_n decreased, and f_t and f_r increased slightly. But when hot rolling temperature was higher than 780℃, there was little difference in texture with the increasing of temperature. β phase can be formed in N18 when temperature was higher than 780℃, and the volume fraction of β phase increased with the increasing of temperature. The deformation of N18 at 750℃ followed the HCP crystal deformation mechanism. When rolling temperature was 780℃ ~820℃, the textures of N18 were mainly controlled by the deformation of α phase. But when temperature was high enough, non-crystal mechanism and crystal boundary slide mechanism were also activated, besides the slip mechanism. Crystal boundary slide mechanism can be promoted by β phase distributing along α grain boundaries.