Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 491 (2019) 165597

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmmm

Research articles

Non-oriented electrical steel with core losses comparable to grain-oriented T

electrical steel
Mehdi Mehdia,b, Youliang Hea,⁎, Erik J. Hilinskic, Narayan C. Kard, Afsaneh Edrisyb
a
CanmetMATERIALS, Natural Resources Canada, Hamilton, ON L8P 0A5, Canada
b
Department of Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada
c
Tempel Steel Co., Chicago, IL 60640-1020, USA
d
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: A 3.2 wt% Si non-oriented electrical steel (NOES) was processed using conventional rolling and annealing routes,
Electrical steels i.e. hot rolling, hot band annealing, cold rolling, and final annealing. The evolution of texture during all the
Texture thermomechanical processing stages was investigated using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) techniques.
Core loss It was found that the final annealing temperature and holding time had a profound effect on the texture. At
Magnetic properties
higher temperatures and shorter holding times, the desired 〈1 0 0〉//ND (normal direction) texture was pro-
Magnetic Barkhausen noise
Recrystallization
moted, while the magnetically unfavorable 〈1 1 1〉//ND texture was weakened. The magnetic properties of the
Rolling steel sheets were measured by Epstein frame method and magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) analysis, and it was
Magnetocrystalline anisotropy found that the AC (alternating current) core losses of the NOES annealed at 850 °C for 60 min were comparable
EBSD to grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES) with the same silicon content and the same sheet thickness, even in the
rolling direction (RD). The DC (direct current) core losses and the MBN decreased with increasing grain size, due
to the decrease of the pinning sites (grain boundaries). The good magnetic properties of the processed NOES
were attributed to a combination of an optimized texture and an appropriate grain size, which was, in turn, the
result of proper hot band annealing, fast heating during annealing and a good selection of the annealing tem-
perature and holding time.

1. Introduction recrystallization (nucleation and grain growth) [6,7]. Although many

Non-oriented electrical steels (NOES) are the most widely used core
material for electric motors, generators and alternators, due to their
high magnetic permeability, high magnetization saturation, low core
loss, and relatively low cost [1–5]. The magnetic properties of non-or-
iented electrical steels are highly dependent on the silicon content, the
cleanliness of the steel, the thickness of the steel sheets, and the grain
size and texture of the final laminations. While most of these properties
can be effectively controlled during the steel making and processing
stages, the formation of the desired crystallographic texture in these
steels, i.e. the 〈1 0 0〉//ND fibre (θ-fibre), is proven to be challenging.
This is because all the thermomechanical processing procedures used to
manufacture the final thin sheets will alter the texture, and the me-
chanisms that govern the formation of textures in some processes (e.g.
recrystallization and phase transformation) are still not completely
understood. The texture undergoes significant alterations during soli-
dification, phase transformation, plastic deformation as well as
studies have been carried out to investigate the effect of thermo-
mechanical processing on the crystallographic texture, and several
models [6,7] and theories have been proposed to elucidate the under-
lying mechanisms, very limited improvement has been made to opti-
mize the final texture of non-oriented electrical steels using conven-
tional processing schemes [7]. The final textures in both cold-rolled and
annealed non-oriented electrical steel sheets are normally dominated by
the magnetically unfavorable 〈1 1 1〉//ND fibre (γ-fibre) [7]. On the
other hand, a number of unconventional processing techniques, e.g.
two-stage cold rolling or cross-rolling [7,8], columnar grain growth
[9–12], asymmetrical warm rolling [13], phase transformation an-
nealing [14,15], inclined rolling [16,17], skew rolling [18], etc., have
been developed in laboratory to optimize the texture of steels, but these
techniques are either very difficult to be implemented in industrial
processes for mass production, or the results have not been validated
under industrial conditions.
In this paper, a 3.2 wt% Si non-oriented electrical steel was

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: youliang.he@canada.ca (Y. He).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2019.165597
Received 12 March 2019; Received in revised form 9 July 2019; Accepted 16 July 2019
Available online 17 July 2019
0304-8853/ Crown Copyright © 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
M. Mehdi, et al.
processed using conventional manufacturing routes, i.e. casting, hot
rolling, hot band annealing, cold rolling and final annealing. The evo-
lution of texture and microstructure during these processes was char-
acterized using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) techniques. The
steel after hot rolling was annealed at a relatively high temperature
(860 °C) for an extended time (24 h) to produce a microstructure that
was believed to promote the formation of the θ-fibre texture during the
subsequent cold rolling and annealing. The final annealing was con-
ducted at different temperatures (750 °C– 1150 °C) for different holding
times (3 h to 2 min) to vary the final microstructure and texture.
The magnetic properties of the processed NOES and a commercial
GOES were measured by standard Epstein frame method to obtain the
bulk permeability and core loss, and by a relatively new technique,
magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) analysis [19–22], to characterize the
local magnetic response. Magnetic Barkhausen noise is a signal origi-
nated from the discontinuous movements of magnetic domain walls
when ferromagnetic material is magnetized by an alternating external
magnetic field, which reveals the interaction between the domain walls
and the stress configurations and/or microstructures of the material
[22]. The microstructural features, e.g. phases, precipitates, inclusions,
dislocations, grain boundaries, textures, etc., will affect the MBN signal.
MBN has been used to characterize the magnetic properties of both
GOES and NOES [23,24], and is especially useful for the evaluation of
local magnetic properties, which is of particular interest for non-or-
iented electrical steels used in rotating machines [21,25]. Based on the
results of magnetic property measurements and microstructure/texture
characterization, the relationships between the grain size/texture of the
steel and the magnetic properties (e.g. core loss, permeability, satura-
tion magnetic induction, MBN, etc.) were discussed.
2. Material and experimental procedure
2.1. Material and processing
The chemical composition of the non-oriented electrical steel in-
vestigated in this study is given in Table 1. The steel was melted in a
vacuum induction furnace and cast into ingots of
200 mm × 100 mm × 265 mm (width × thickness × length). The in-
gots were then reheated to 1050 °C and hot rolled to a thickness of
20 mm (80% thickness reduction) in a reversing rolling mill in six
passes. The hot rolling starting temperature was ~945 °C and the fin-
ishing temperature was ~865 °C (the temperatures were measured on
the surface of the steel plates using infrared thermometers). A second
hot rolling (also reheated to 1050 °C) was applied to reduce the thick-
ness from 20 mm to ~3.3 mm (~85% reduction) in six passes as well. In
this case the starting and finishing temperatures were ~925 °C and
~680 °C, respectively. The steel plates were then pickled in a hydro-
chloric acid solution to remove surface oxides.
The hot-rolled plates were subsequently annealed at 860 °C for 24 h
in argon-protected atmosphere and furnace cooled. The annealed plates
were cold rolled to a final thickness of 0.35 mm (~90% reduction).
These were then annealed at various temperatures: 750, 850, 950, 1050
and 1150 °C, for different times: 180, 60, 30, 10 and 2 min, respectively.
The samples were inserted into a tube furnace that had been heated to
the designated temperatures so that the samples could be quickly he-
ated up. The shorter holding times used for higher temperatures were
intended to control the grain size so that the grain sizes of all the
samples did not vary very significantly.
Table 1
Chemical composition of the investigated non-oriented electrical steel (wt%).
C Mn P S Si Al N O Fe
0.004 0.40 0.0095 0.0027 3.20 0.58 0.0034 0.0037 Balance
2
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 491 (2019) 165597
2.2. Characterization of microtexture
The microtextures of the steel after all the thermomechanical pro-
cessing stages were characterized by EBSD in a field emission gun (FEG)
scanning electron microscope (Nova NanoSEM, FEI) equipped with an
EDAX Orientation Imaging Microscopy (OIM 6.2) system. The EBSD
samples were prepared using conventional metallographic procedures
plus a final polishing step using a 0.05 µm colloidal silica solution fol-
lowed by thorough ultrasonic cleaning. The EBSD scans after hot
rolling, hot-band annealing and cold rolling were performed on the RD-
ND cross sections, which essentially covered the entire thickness of the
plates/sheets. On the other hand, due to the large grain sizes after
annealing, the EBSD scans on the final annealed samples were per-
formed on the middle-thickness planes of the steel sheets (i.e. RD-TD
section), with approximately 3 mm × 3 mm scanned areas, in order to
obtain a good statistical representation of the texture. Orientation dis-
tribution functions (ODFs) were calculated using a harmonic series
expansion method with a series rank of 22 and a Gaussian half-width of
5°. The φ2 = 45° section of the Euler space (Bunge notation) was used
to represent the typical bcc texture fibres and components. The volume
fractions of the three major texture fibres, i.e. θ-fibre (〈1 0 0〉//ND), α-
fibre (〈1 1 0〉//RD) and γ-fibre (〈1 1 1〉//ND) were calculated from the
ODFs with a tolerance of 15°. The grain sizes were calculated using the
OIM software based on the grain orientation data [26].
2.3. Magnetic property measurements by Epstein frame method
Overall (bulk) magnetic properties of the final annealed steel were
measured using standard Epstein frame method [27]. For each material,
a total of 20 rectangular strips (305 mm × 30 mm) were cut from the
steel sheets, with the longitudinal axis parallel to the rolling direction.
For the commercial GOES, an extra set of 20 strips were cut along the
transverse direction (TD), in order to measure and compare the mag-
netic properties in the TD. The bulk magnetic properties were measured
using a SMT-700 Soft Magnetic Material Testing System (Magnetic In-
strumentation, Inc. [28]). Both DC and AC tests were conducted to
characterize the material’s magnetic behavior. For DC measurements, a
maximum current of 12 A, and a maximum induction of 2.5 T were
utilized. The DC core loss, saturation induction, and maximum per-
meability were obtained. The AC tests were carried out at similar
testing conditions with frequencies varying from 3 Hz to 300 Hz. A
summary of the testing parameters used in the DC and AC tests is given
in Table 2.
2.4. Magnetic Barkhausen noise measurements
Local magnetic response of the electrical steel sheets was evaluated
by magnetic Barkhausen noise analysis using a Rollscan 350 MBN
Analysis System (Stresstech Oy, Finland [29,30]). The MBN is measured
as a voltage signal (in mV) by placing a pick-up coil close to the surface
of the material while the material is magnetized by an external ex-
citation field with varying direction and/or intensity. The recorded
Table 2
Parameters used for the DC and AC Epstein frame tests.
Strip dimensions (length × width) 305 mm × 30 mm
Total Mass ~500 g
Density 7.65 g/cm3
H coil turns 700
B coil turns 74
B coil resistance 0.6 Ω
B step size 0.02 T
Frequency (AC only) 3 Hz–300 Hz
AC waveform Sinusoidal
Form factor 1.11
M. Mehdi, et al. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 491 (2019) 165597

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the MBN measurements on the Epstein frame strip: (a) measuring locations along the rolling direction, (b) schematic of the MBN
sensor and the magnetization of the sample.

MBN signal is then processed and stored as digital data for further
statistical analysis. To obtain a good representation of the magnetic
properties, 10 measurements were performed on one of the 20 Epstein
frame strips for each steel at 10 equally-spaced locations along the
central line in the RD (Fig. 1). The measured results were then averaged
and compared to the DC core losses obtained from Epstein frame
method (both measurements were in RD only). All the MBN measure-
ments were conducted at a magnetizing frequency of 125 Hz and a peak
voltage of 5 V (default setting values of the MBN system). The MBN
analyzing depth was estimated to be ~150 µm based on the resistivity
(6.41 µΩ cm) and relative permeability (~4000) of the 3.20 wt% Si
steel [31,32]. Each MBN measurement consists of 20 bursts of MBN
signal, which was filtered to a frequency range of 0.1–1000 kHz.
3. Results
3.1. Hot rolling texture and microstructure
The cross-section (RD-ND) EBSD inverse pole figure (IPF) map of the
steel after hot rolling is illustrated in Fig. 2a. The microstructure and
crystal orientations show significant heterogeneity across the thickness
of the plate. The surfaces (approximately 1/3 of the thickness) are
composed of small, equiaxed grains (average grain size ~ 13 µm), while
the rest 2/3 of the plate consists of large, elongated (deformed) grains.
Different grain orientations can be noticed in both regions: while the
surface grains show a variety of different orientations (colors), the
elongated grains only illustrate a few colors, i.e. essentially red
(〈0 0 1〉//ND), green (〈0 1 1〉//ND), and blue (〈1 1 1〉//ND). The
elongated grains can be further divided into two sub-areas: the central
area with mostly 〈0 0 1〉//ND (red) and 〈1 1 1〉/ND (blue) grains, and
the transition areas (between the surface and the central area) with
mainly 〈0 1 1〉//ND (green) grains.

Fig. 2. Microstructure and microtexture of the 3.2 wt% Si NOES after hot rolling: (a) EBSD IPF map of the RD-ND cross section, (b) texture of the surface regions, (c)
texture of the central region, (d) texture of the transition areas, (e) overall texture across the thickness. φ2 = 45° sections of the ODFs (Bunge notation).

3
M. Mehdi, et al.
Fig. 3. Microstructure and microtexture after hot rolling and annealing: (a) EBSD IPF map of the cross section (RD-ND plane), (b) φ2 = 45° section of the ODFs
(Bunge notation) showing the overall texture.
The texture of the surface regions (Fig. 2b) is mainly composed of
copper ({1 1 2} 〈1 1 1〉 ) , brass ({1 1 0} 〈1 1 2〉 ) and Goss
({1 1 0} 〈0 0 1〉 ) components, which are common orientations resulted
from the friction (shear deformation) between the rolls and the plate
[33]. The central region (slightly more than 1/3 of the thickness) fea-
tures a strong θ-fiber (〈1 0 0〉//ND) (including cube and rotated cube)
and a weak γ-fibre (〈1 1 1〉//ND) texture (Fig. 2c). The texture of the
transition area (Fig. 2d) is mainly composed of a strong Goss, a copper
and a brass. There is also a weak {0 0 1} 〈1 2 0〉 component on the θ-
fibre. The overall texture of the cross section (Fig. 2e) is featured by a θ-
fibre and some weak components such as brass, copper, Goss and γ-
fibre. The intensities of these components, however, are much lower
than those in the individual regions. Both the texture and the micro-
structure of the hot-rolled NOES are very similar to the rolling textures
and microstructures of interstitial free (IF) steels [33–36].
3.2. Microstructure and texture after hot band annealing
After annealing at 860 °C for 24 h, the microstructure and micro-
texture of the hot-rolled plate changed significantly (Fig. 3a). Both the
surface and central regions are composed of recrystallized grains, but
microstructural variation still exists across the thickness, i.e. the grains
near the surface regions are generally smaller than those at the central
region. The average grain size is approximately 123 µm, but the in-
dividual grains show large deviations, i.e. grains in the range of tens of
microns to ~500 µm can all be seen in the microstructure. The variation
in grain size is due to the fact that before annealing (Fig. 2a), the sur-
face grains have already recrystallized during hot rolling, and they es-
sentially only undergo grain growth during the subsequent annealing
(nucleation is essentially prohibited due to the lack of strain). The low
stored energy in these grains limited their growth since all the neigh-
boring grains already recrystallized and the driving force was low [37].
On the other hand, the central region is composed of deformed grains
after hot rolling, which have higher stored energy than the re-
crystallized grains near the surfaces. Once new grains nucleate from the
4
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 491 (2019) 165597
deformed microstructure, the growth rate of these grains is fast since
their growth is accomplished by consuming the neighboring deformed
matrix, the latter having high stored energy, and the driving force being
large [37].
The texture of the steel plate after hot band annealing is shown in
Fig. 3b. The texture is substantially altered after annealing: the θ-fibre
(〈1 0 0〉//ND) in the hot-rolled steel (Fig. 2e) essentially disappears,
while a strong {1 1 4} 〈2 6 1〉 component is produced, which is close to
the α*-fibre ({1 1 h} 〈1 2 1/h〉) [38]. There is also a
{1 1 3} 〈1 1 0〉 component on the α-fibre. The γ-fibre becomes con-
tinuous after annealing. The copper, brass and Goss in the hot-rolled
steel have been significantly weakened or completely eliminated.
It is worth noting that most of the recrystallized grains in the mi-
crostructure (Fig. 3a), particularly those in the central region, are not
equiaxed, i.e. they show apparent lateral discrepancies in the RD and
TD (i.e. larger in the RD than TD), indicating that the grain growth
preferentially occurs in the rolling direction. In fact, the average in-
tercept length measured from 200 horizontal lines parallel to the RD
(i.e. the average grain diameter in RD) is ~190 µm, while that mea-
sured in the ND is only ~105 µm. This suggests that the newly formed
nuclei in the central region more likely grow by consuming the elon-
gated (deformed) grains in the rolling direction during grain growth. As
have been shown in Fig. 2a, these elongated grains usually have grain
boundaries essentially parallel to the RD, thus the recrystallized grains
grown within them usually also show longitudinal axes parallel to the
RD.
3.3. Cold rolling microstructure and texture
The microstructure and microtexture after cold rolling are shown in
Fig. 4a. Cold rolling results in the elongation of the originally re-
crystallized grains (Fig. 3a). In some grains, a large amount of shear
bands can be seen, and the accumulation of dislocations in these regions
makes the indexing difficult, thus they may appear black in the IPF
map. In other grains, the formation of shear bands is not obvious, but
M. Mehdi, et al.
Fig. 4. Microstructure and texture of the cold-rolled 3.2 wt% Si electrical steel: (a) EBSD IPF map of the RD-ND cross section, (b) φ2 = 45° section of the ODFs (Bunge
notation) showing the overall texture across the thickness.
there are a lot of microbands showing different orientations (colors),
which may be the result of grain fragmentation (intra-grain rotation)
during heavy plastic deformation [38]. These locations are considered
as very important nucleation sites during the subsequent recrystalliza-
tion process.
Although the crystal orientations in the annealed hot band show
large variations (Fig. 3a), the texture after ~85% cold rolling reduction
(Fig. 4b) is essentially composed of three fibres, i.e. 〈0 0 1〉//ND (θ-
fibre), 〈1 1 0〉//RD (α-fibre) and 〈1 1 1〉//ND (γ-fibre), which are ty-
pical textures commonly observed in rolled bcc iron [34]. The max-
imum intensity (19.2) is observed at the rotated cube ({0 0 1} 〈1 1 0〉 )
orientation, and a strong {1 1 1} 〈1 1 0〉 on the α-fibre (intensity 9.8) is
also noted.
3.4. Microstructure and texture after final annealing
As has been seen in Fig. 4a, the microstructure after cold rolling
consists of a lot of shear bands and microbands, which are preferred
nucleation regions during recrystallization. It has been shown [39,40]
that, within these regions, there are crystallites or crystal volumes that
have lower stored energy than their surroundings, and these crystallites
(volumes) form the initial nuclei, which grow by consuming the sur-
rounding high-energy domains. As the recrystallization continues, the
growing grains also consume the deformed matrix. The driving force for
the growth of the newly formed grains is the reduction of the stored
energy accumulated during plastic deformation. Depending on the an-
nealing temperature and holding time, the annealed microstructure and
texture show significant discrepancies (Fig. 5).
Fig. 5a shows the microstructure of the sample after annealing at
750 °C for 180 min. The average grain size is ~82 µm, and there exists a
large variation in the grain diameter, i.e. 10–250 µm. The texture
(Fig. 5f) is featured by a strong γ-fibre and a relatively strong {0 0 1}
〈1 4 0〉 component on the θ-fibre. Compared to the cold rolling texture
shown in Fig. 4b, the strong rotated cube and the α-fibre disappear,
while the γ-fibre persists. A partial fibre close to the α*-fibre is noted
stretching from the θ-fibre to the γ-fibre.
When the annealing temperature is increased to 850 °C and the
holding time is reduced to 60 min, the average grain size is increased to
~103 µm (Fig. 5b), also with a considerable spread (20–300 µm). The
prominent texture is now the {0 0 1} 〈1 4 0〉 component on the θ-fibre,
with an intensity of 8.7 (Fig. 5g). The γ-fibre changes to only one weak
{1 1 1} 〈1 1 2〉 component with an intensity of 2.8. Again, the rotated
5
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 491 (2019) 165597
cube and the α-fibre in the cold-rolled steel essentially disappear. Si-
milarly, a near α*-fibre is seen to extend from the θ-fibre to the γ-fibre.
When the annealing temperature is 950 °C and the holding time is
30 min, the average grain size increases to ~ 160 µm (Fig. 5c), with a
spread between ~ 30 µm and ~ 500 µm. The texture (Fig. 5h) is again
composed of a {0 0 1} 〈1 4 0〉 component (intensity 6.0) on the θ-fibre
and a {111 〈1 1 2〉 (intensity 3.2) on the γ-fibre. A weak Goss texture
({1 1 0} 〈0 0 1〉 ) starts to appear. The rotated cube and α-fibre are es-
sentially eliminated, and there also exists a near α*-fibre.
If the annealing is conducted at 1050 °C for 10 min, the average
grain size increases to ~200 µm (Fig. 5d), with a spread of 38–550 µm.
The texture (Fig. 5i) is also featured by a {0 0 1} 〈1 4 0〉 on the θ-fibre
(intensity 5.0) , a {1 1 1} 〈1 1 2〉 on the γ-fibre (intensity 2.4), and an
α*-fibre. The α-fibre and the rotated cube in the cold-rolled steel are
completely eliminated. If the annealing temperature is further increased
to 1150 °C and the time is reduced to 2 min, the average grain size drops
slightly to ~187 µm (Fig. 5e), with a spread of 35–525 µm. The de-
crease of the average grain size as compared to annealing at 1050 °C for
10 min may be due to the short holding time, which limits the grain
growth. The main texture is still the {0 0 1} 〈1 4 0〉 component, but the
intensity drops to 4.3 (Fig. 5j). However, the γ-fibre is essentially
eliminated, and a cube texture (intensity 2.6) is observed, which is not
seen in any of the samples annealed at other temperatures. The rotated
cube and the α-fibre are eliminated. Again, there is also an α*-fibre.
Therefore, although the annealing temperature and holding time are
significantly different, the resulted recrystallization textures all contain
a {0 0 1} 〈1 4 0〉 component, a {1 1 1} 〈1 1 2〉 component and a near α*-
fibre [38]. The main differences among the textures are the relative
intensities of the {0 0 1} 〈1 4 0〉 component on the θ-fibre and the
{1 1 1} 〈1 1 2〉 component on the γ-fibre. Annealing at 750 °C for
180 min produced the strongest γ-fibre and the weakest
{0 0 1} 〈1 4 0〉 component, while annealing at 850 °C for 60 min created
the strongest {0 0 1} 〈1 4 0〉 component and a relatively weak
{1 1 1} 〈1 1 2〉 component. Annealing at 1150 °C for 2 min can essen-
tially eliminate the magnetically unfavorable γ-fibre, although the in-
tensity of the {0 0 1} 〈1 4 0〉 component is also decreased.
The variations of the volume fractions of the three major fibre
textures (α, θ, and γ) with respect to the annealing temperature are
summarized in Fig. 6. It is seen that annealing at all the temperatures
significantly reduced the volume fraction of the α-fibre (compared to
that after cold rolling), while the θ-fibre and γ-fibre may be strength-
ened or weakened depending on the annealing temperature. Annealing
M. Mehdi, et al.
Fig. 5. Microstructure and texture of the final annealed steel: (a)-(e) EBSD IPF maps showing the microstructure after annealing at 750 °C for 180 min, 850 °C for
60 min, 950 °C for 30 min, 1050 °C for 10 min and 1150 °C for 2 min, respectively, (f)-(j) φ2 = 45° sections of the ODFs (Bunge notation) showing the corresponding
textures. The EBSD scans were performed on the sheet plane at the middle thickness.
Fig. 6. Variations of the common texture fibres (α, θ and γ) with respect to the
annealing temperature.
at 850 °C and 1050 °C can promote the θ-fibre texture, while annealing
at other temperatures, the θ-fibre volume fraction essentially does not
change, i.e. the same as the cold-rolled steel. The volume fraction of the
γ-fibre, on the other hand, generally decreases with the increase of the
annealing temperature.
3.5. Magnetic properties
3.5.1. DC core loss
The measured DC core losses for samples annealed at different
temperatures are illustrated in Fig. 7, where the losses are also com-
pared to the average grain sizes of the samples. It is seen that with the
increase of the annealing temperature, the average grain size gradually
increases until 1050 °C, after which the grain size slightly drops when
the annealing temperature is further increased to 1150 °C. The DC core
loss, on the other hand, gradually decreases with the annealing tem-
perature. At 1050 °C, a minimum is reached, and further increasing the
6
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 491 (2019) 165597
Fig. 7. Relations among the annealing temperature, average grain size and the
DC core loss.
annealing temperature leads to a slight increase of the DC core loss.
Thus the DC core loss generally decreases with the increase of the
average grain size.
3.5.2. AC magnetic properties
AC core losses were measured at two frequencies (50 and 250 Hz),
and the steel strips were magnetized to saturation. Depending on the
frequency, the saturation flux density is different: for the low frequency
(50 Hz), the saturation magnetic flux density reaches ~1.68 T, while
that of the high frequency (250 Hz) is only ~1.38 T. The results at a
magnetic flux density of 1.0 T for both frequencies are shown in Fig. 8.
The AC core losses at low and high frequencies behave slightly differ-
ently with respect to the annealing temperature: at a low frequency, a
minimum loss is observed at 850 °C, and further increasing the an-
nealing temperature gradually increases the core loss; at a high fre-
quency, the minimum loss is observed at 750 °C, and it gradually in-
creases with the annealing temperature. The AC losses at 250 Hz are
approximately an order of magnitude higher than those at 50 Hz.
The saturation magnetic flux densities of all the annealed samples at
DC and AC (50 Hz) magnetizing conditions are shown in Fig. 9a. Gen-
erally, the DC saturation magnetization is consistently higher than the
M. Mehdi, et al.
Fig. 8. The variations of AC core losses at magnetizing frequencies of 50 Hz and
250 Hz with respect to annealing temperature.
AC saturation magnetization at all the annealing temperatures, but both
show essentially the same trend when the annealing temperature in-
creases. In each case, a minimum saturation magnetization is observed
at 850 °C, and at all the other temperatures, the saturation magnetic
flux densities are essentially the same. Consequently, although the AC
loss has a minimum after annealing at 850 °C for 60 min (with the
strongest {0 0 1} 〈1 4 0〉 texture), the saturation magnetization is also
the minimum. On the other hand, the relative permeability (AC, 50 Hz)
of the electrical steel (Fig. 9b) shows an opposite trend with respect to
the annealing temperature, i.e. the relative permeability has a max-
imum at 850 °C, where the magnetically favourable
{0 0 1} 〈1 4 0〉 texture has the highest intensity.
3.5.3. AC core loss compared to commercial grain-oriented electrical steel
The magnetic properties (rolling direction) of the non-oriented
electrical steel produced in this study (annealed at 850 °C for 60 min)
are compared to those of commercially available grain-oriented elec-
trical steel in Fig. 10. Both steels contain essentially the same amount of
silicon (3.2 wt%), and the thicknesses of the sheets are all ~ 0.35 mm.
However, the microstructure and texture of the two steels are sig-
nificantly different. The GOES has essentially a single Goss
({0 1 1} 〈1 0 0〉 ) texture and very large grain sizes (i.e. in the range of
centimeters), while the NOES shows the strongest texture at
{0 0 1} 〈1 4 0〉 with an intensity of 8.7 (Fig. 5g). The average grain size
Fig. 9. The variations of maximum saturation flux density and relative permeability with respect to annealing conditions: (a) maximum saturation flux density at DC
(Bs) and AC (B50) magnetization, and (b) relative permeability (µr).
7
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 491 (2019) 165597
of the NOES is ~103 µm (Fig. 5b). As can be seen from Fig. 10a, if the
magnetic flux density is smaller than ~1.25 T, the core losses of the
NOES are comparable to (slightly higher than) those of the commercial
GOES even in the rolling direction. When the magnetic flux density is
greater than ~1.25 T, the core losses of the NOES are apparently higher
than those of the GOES. It is also noted that the GOES has apparent
anisotropy between the rolling direction and the transverse direction,
i.e. the core losses in the TD are considerably higher than those in the
RD.
The core losses of both steels at different frequencies (under a fixed
magnetic flux density of 1.0 T) are quite close with each other
(Fig. 10b), i.e. the core losses of the NOES produced in this study are
also comparable to those of the commercial GOES at all the frequencies
if the magnetic flux density is relatively small (1.0 T). In fact, the core
losses are even slightly lower than those of the commercial GOES (RD)
when the frequency is higher than 225 Hz.
3.5.4. Magnetic Barkhausen noise
The average MBN root mean square (rms) value [21,30] of the 10
measurements along the rolling direction (Fig. 1a) of each steel strip is
plotted against the annealing temperature in Fig. 11a, where the
MBNrms is also compared to the average grain size. It is seen that the
MBNrms drops significantly when the annealing temperature increases
from 750 °C to 1050 °C. After that, the MBNrms slightly increases with
the increase of the annealing temperature. This shows essentially the
same trend as the DC core loss with respect to annealing temperature
and grain size (Fig. 7). If the MBNrms is plotted against the square root
of the average grain size d (Fig. 11b), an approximate linear relation-
ship is observed between the MBNrms and the d1/2, which is very similar
to the well-known Hall-Petch relationship between the yield strength
and the grain size observed in structural materials [24,37].
3.5.5. Magnetocrystalline anisotropy
The magnetocrystalline anisotropy of the electrical steel can be
characterized using a texture factor [7,21,36] defined as the minimum
angle between the magnetization direction M and the three easy axes
(〈1 0 0〉 ) of the crystal (Fig. 12), weighted by the intensity of the crystal
orientation, which is expressed as:
A = f (g ) A (g ) dg (1)
where A (g ) is the minimum angle between the magnetization vector
and the three easy 〈1 0 0〉 axes of a given orientation (g), θ is the angle
between the magnetization direction and the sample coordinate system
(RD in this study), and f(g) is the orientation distribution function. For
each angle (θ), the texture factor can be readily calculated using Eq. (1)
by rotating the ODF around the ND by the θ angle. The average texture
factor is then calculated from the texture factors at all the directions
M. Mehdi, et al. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 491 (2019) 165597

Fig. 10. Magnetic properties of the 3.2 wt% Si non-oriented electrical steel produced in this study compared to those of a commercial grain-oriented electrical steel:
(a) core losses at different magnetic flux densities (with a fixed frequency of 125 Hz), (b) core losses at various frequencies (with a fixed magnetic flux density of
1.0 T).

Fig. 11. The average MBNrms values measured in the rolling direction of the steel strips: (a) relation between MBNrms and annealing temperature, (b) relation
between MBNrms and the square root of the average grain size (d).

(θ = 0°–360°). Apparently, the smaller the texture factor, the closer the
crystals’ easy axes are to the magnetization vector.
Fig. 13 illustrates the texture factors (at all the directions in the
sheet plane) of the NOES sheets annealed at different temperatures
compared to those of the GOES. It is seen that the texture factors
(Fig. 13a–e) for all NOES sheets illustrate a similar quatrefoil shape,
with the maximum values falling approximately half way between the
RD and TD, i.e. at 45°/225° and 135°/315°. The minimums were seen
close to RD and TD, i.e. 0°/180° and 90°/270°. The GOES (Fig. 13f), on
the other hand, shows an hourglass shape with a narrow neck in the
rolling direction. The very small texture factor (close to 0°) in the
rolling direction is due to the unique Goss texture ({0 1 1} 〈1 0 0〉 ) in
this type of steel, i.e. the minimum angle between the magnetization
vector (the RD) and the crystal 〈1 0 0〉 axes is zero. Apparently, the

Fig. 12. Schematic illustration of the texture factor Aθ (g) defined as the minimum angle between the magnetization vector (M ) and the crystal easy magnetization
axes [1 0 0], [0 1 0] and [0 0 1]. Since α1 is the minimum angle in this example (α1 < α2 < α3), Aθ (g) would be equal to α1.

8
M. Mehdi, et al.
Fig. 13. The texture factors at various directions to the RD (0°) for the NOES sheets annealed under different conditions: (a) 750 °C for 180 min, (b) 850 °C for 60 min,
(c) 950 °C for 30 min, (d) 1050 °C for 10 min, (e) 1150 °C for 2 min, and (f) commercial GOES.
NOES shows much less magnetocrystalline anisotropy than the GOES
since the variation of the texture factor in all the directions is much
smaller than that of the GOES.
4. Discussion
It has been seen that the crystallographic texture of the 3.2 wt% Si
NOES processed in this study has been considerably improved (i.e. the
θ-fibre is strengthened and the γ-fibre is weakened or eliminated) by
combining hot band annealing at 860 °C for 24 h and final annealing at
850 °C or higher. The prolonged hot band annealing leads to the for-
mation of a heterogeneous microstructure across the plate thickness
(Fig. 3a) and a randomized texture prior to cold rolling (Fig. 3b). Lee
et al. [41] has reported that the coarse grains after hot band annealing
can slow down the recrystallization process after cold rolling, which
retards the formation of the 〈1 1 1〉//ND orientations after final an-
nealing, and promotes the 〈0 0 1〉//ND and 〈1 1 3〉//ND textures. On
the other hand, de Dafe et al. [42] reported that coarse grains after hot
band annealing promote the formation of magnetically favourable
crystal orientations (i.e. 〈0 0 1〉//ND), due to the increased amount of
the shear bands in the deformed microstructure. It is well known that
nucleation preferably starts at regions with microstructural hetero-
geneities (high stored energies), e.g. shear bands, microbands, etc.
[37,43–46]. This will suppress the nucleation at grain boundaries that
usually leads to the γ-fibre texture. Thus, increasing the amounts of
shear bands, microbands or crystal fragmentations leads to the forma-
tion of the magnetically favorable θ-fibre components that are normally
difficult to form from the nucleation at grain boundaries [41,42].
On the other hand, the annealing in this study was conducted by
inserting the samples into a furnace already heated to the designated
temperature, so the heating rate is faster than that if the sample was
heated up with the furnace [47]. Since the 〈0 0 1〉//ND grains have a
lower stored energy than the 〈1 1 1〉//ND grains [37], their nucleation
usually requires a higher temperature to occur. The rapid heating rate
allows the material to reach the required temperature quickly before
the deformed 〈0 0 1〉//ND grains are consumed by other recrystallized
grains, leading to the formation of the 〈0 0 1〉//ND nuclei. Wang et al.
9
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 491 (2019) 165597
[48] reported that a higher heating rate led to grain refinement as well
as the weakening of the 〈1 1 1〉//ND texture. A higher annealing tem-
perature also promotes the nucleation of the θ-fibre grains. The results
shown above (Figs. 5 and 6) indicate that the volume fraction of the γ-
fibre decreased with the increase of the annealing temperature.
It is well known that the core loss (per hysteresis cycle) of electrical
steel at a given frequency f is composed of three major parts [3,5,49]:
W (f )
= Wh + Wcl (f ) + Wexc (f )
f (2)
where Wh is the quasi-static hysteresis loss, Wcl (f ) is the classical eddy
current loss, and Wexc (f ) is the excess loss. The hysteresis loss Wh is
independent of the frequency (f), while the other two losses are closely
related to the frequency.
The hysteresis loss is directly related to the domain wall motion
during the magnetization and demagnetization process under quasi-
static conditions, which can be evaluated using the Steinmetz empirical
formula [5,49,50].
Wh = HdB Kh (Bm ) x (J /m3) (3)
where Bm is the peak flux density, and Kh and x are material-dependent
parameters.
Eddy current loss is dependent on the thickness of the steel sheet, t,
the electrical resistivity, , the peak flux density, Bm, as well as the
magnetizing frequency, f, which can be calculated as [3,5,49]:
2
Wcl (f ) = t 2Bm2 f (J / m3)
k (4)
where k is a magnetization waveform dependent constant.
The origin of the excess loss remains a subject of debate in the lit-
erature. Some researchers have attributed the excess loss to the motion
of large magnetic domains, and thus believe that Wh and Wexc have a
similar origin. The excess loss can be evaluated as:
f Bm3/2 (J / m3)
Wexc (f ) = kexc (5)
where σ = 1/ρ is the conductivity, and kexc is a material parameter
M. Mehdi, et al.
related to the domain structure and the structural properties of the
material [3,5,49].
It has been pointed out in the literature [7,51,52] that the core loss
of electrical steels is more dependent on the grain size than on the
texture. The DC core loss shown in Fig. 7 indicated that the DC core loss
was indeed closely related to the grain size, i.e. with the increase of the
grain size, the DC core loss decreases. This may be attributed to the
decreased grain boundaries, which resulted in the decrease of the pin-
ning effect during the magnetization and demagnetization processes.
This trend was also reflected in the MBN response (Fig. 11), i.e. the
fewer the grain boundaries, the fewer the pinning sites for domain wall
motion, and the smaller the MBN. The texture, on the other hand, did
not show an apparent effect on the DC core loss or the MBN.
Although Eq. (4) does not show an explicit relation between the
eddy current loss and the grain size, it has been reported by a few re-
searchers [3,5,53–55] that the eddy current loss increases with the
grain size. Because of the opposite relation between the hysteresis loss
and the grain size, there exists an optimal grain size at which the total
loss induced by hysteresis and eddy current is minimum, e.g. the sample
annealed at 850 °C for 60 min as shown in Fig. 8a. However, this is true
only for low frequency excitations, since at high frequencies, the eddy
current loss (which is proportional to f 2 ) will dominate the total loss,
thus a smaller grain size would result in a smaller core loss [3,5,53–55].
The sample annealed at 750 °C for 180 min has the smallest grain size
(~82 µm), thus it has the lowest core loss at 250 Hz.
Although it has been shown in Fig. 5 that, when the annealing
temperature was increased, the texture was optimized, i.e. the θ-fibre
was promoted and the γ-fibre was weakened, the AC core loss did not
show apparent improvement with the texture optimization, i.e. the
variation of the core loss was quite small no matter what was the tex-
ture. As shown in Fig. 13, the texture factors (in RD) of the steels an-
nealed at different temperatures vary from 26.0° to 29.3°, and the core
losses of these steels vary from 0.94 W/kg to 1.025 W/kg. The lowest
texture factor does not correspond to the lowest core loss. In fact, it is
the opposite, i.e. the largest texture factor results in the lowest core loss
(annealing at 850 °C for 60 min). Apparently, the dominant factor here
is not the crystallographic texture, i.e. other microstructural features
(e.g. grain size) may have dominated the core loss (e.g. the excess loss)
[7,52,56,57]. Similarly, the permeability of the electrical steel is also
affected by both the grain size and texture. At low inductions (i.e. below
about 1.0 T), the permeability is predominately influenced by grain size
instead of texture, while under high inductions (i.e. 1.5 T or more), the
texture has a major effect [52]. Thus the largest permeability observed
in the sample annealed at 850 °C for 60 min (Fig. 9b) might also be due
to an optimal grain size.
Nonetheless, it has been shown that the core losses of the non-or-
iented electrical steel annealed at 850 °C for 60 min were comparable
to, or even better than, those of the commercially available grain-or-
iented electrical steel if the magnetic flux density is smaller than 1.25 T.
It is well known that the grain-oriented electrical steel consists of es-
sentially only one grain orientation (the Goss) with very large grain
sizes (millimeters to centimetres) [37]. Although it has very small
texture factor in the rolling direction (which is beneficial to the core
loss), the extremely large grain size will simultaneously deteriorate the
core loss, especially when the frequency is high. This is because the
eddy current loss will dominate the total loss when the frequency is
high, and the eddy current loss increases with grain size. A good
combination of the microstructure (grain size) and the crystallographic
texture of the non-oriented electrical steel produced in this study might
have resulted in the better core losses than the grain-oriented electrical
steel.
5. Summary and conclusions
In this study, a non-oriented electrical steel with 3.2 wt% of silicon
was processed using conventional rolling and annealing routes, and the
10
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 491 (2019) 165597
evolution of microstructure and texture was characterized by EBSD.
The magnetic properties of the processed steel were measured by
Epstein frame method and magnetic Barkhausen noise analysis, which
were compared to those of a commercial grain-oriented electrical steel.
The findings of this research can be summarized as follows:
• The texture of the 3.2 wt% Si non-oriented electrical steel was im-
proved through hot band annealing at 860 °C for 24 h, fast heating
during final annealing, as well as an appropriate combination of the
annealing temperature and holding time.
• Annealing the steel at a temperature higher than 750 °C resulted in
the increase of the magnetically favourable θ-fibre and suppressing
the magnetically detrimental γ-fibre. This was due to the preferred
nucleation at shear bands, microbands and fragmented grains,
especially after obtaining coarse grains during hot band annealing.
• The DC core losses showed a good correlation with respect to the
grain size, i.e. the larger the grain size, the smaller the core loss, due
to the decrease of grain boundaries that act as pinning sites during
magnetization and demagnetization. The MBN response also
showed a similar relation with respect to the grain size.
• The AC core loss at a low frequency (50 Hz) showed the lowest value
in the sample annealed at 850 °C for 60 min, and the relative per-
meability (at 1.0 T) also showed the highest value in this sample.
These might be mainly due to an optimal grain size obtained in this
sample, although this sample also showed a strong 〈0 0 1〉//ND
texture.
• For high frequency applications, it was shown that the grain size
was the dominant factor. So the lowest core loss was obtained in the
sample with the smallest grain size, i.e. the one annealed at 750 °C
for 180 min.
• The sample annealed at 850 °C for 60 min showed AC core losses
comparable to (only slightly higher than) those of the commercial
grain-oriented electrical steel at low frequencies (<225 Hz), and
even lower losses at higher frequencies (>225 Hz).
Acknowledgements
Funding of this research was provided by the Program of Energy
Research and Development (PERD), Natural Resources Canada Natural
Sciences, and by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of
Canada (NSERC). Peter Newcombe, Douglas McFarlan, Howard
Webster, and David Saleh are acknowledged for casting the steel.
Michael Attard and Mason Thomas are thanked for carrying out the hot
and cold rolling of the steel. Renata Zavadil and Jian Li are gratefully
acknowledged for their assistance in EBSD measurements.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2019.165597.
References
[1] B.D. Cullity, C.D. Graham, Introduction to Magnetic Materials, John Wiley & Sons,
Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, 2011.
[2] C.W. Chen, Magnetism and Metallurgy of Soft Magnetic Materials, Dover publica-
tions, New York, USA, 1986.
[3] F. Fiorillo, G. Bertotti, C. Appino, M. Pasquale, Soft magnetic materials, in:
M. Peterca (Ed.), Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,
Wiley, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2016.
[4] A.J. Moses, Electrical steels: past, present and future developments. IEE Proceedings
A (Physical Science, Measurement and Instrumentation, Management and
Education), 1990, 137 (5), 233–245.
[5] A.J. Moses, Energy efficient electrical steels: magnetic performance prediction and
optimization, Scrip. Mater 67 (6) (2012) 560–565.
[6] R.K. Ray, J.J. Jonas, Transformation textures in steels, Int. Mater. Rev. 35 (1)
(1990) 1–36.
[7] L. Kestens, S. Jacobs, Texture control during the manufacturing of non-oriented
electrical steels, Texture, Stress, and Microstructure, Article ID 173083, 2008, 1–9.
M. Mehdi, et al.
[8] D. Vanderschueren, L. Kestens, P. van Houtte, E. Aernoudt, J. Dilewijns, U. Meers,
The effect of cross rolling on texture and magnetic properties of non oriented
electrical steels, Textur. Microstruct. 14–18 (1991) 921–926.
[9] F. Kovac, M. Dzubinský, Y. Sidor, Columnar grain growth in non-oriented electrical
steels, J. Magnet. Magnet. Mater. 269 (3) (2004) 333–340.
[10] L. Xie, P. Yang, N. Zhang, C. Zong, D. Xia, W. Mao, Formation of 1 0 0 textured
columnar grain structure in a non-oriented electrical steel by phase transformation,
J. Magnet. Magnet. Mater. 356 (2014) 1–4.
[11] T. Tomida, N. Sano, K. Ueda, K. Fujiwara, N. Takahashi, Cube-textured Si-steel
sheets by oxide-separator-induced decarburization and growth mechanism of cube
grains, J. Magnet. Magnet. Mater. 254–255 (2003) 315–317.
[12] M. Džubinský, Y. Sidor, F. Kováč, Kinetics of columnar abnormal grain growth in
low-Si non-oriented electrical steel, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 385 (1–2) (2004) 449–454.
[13] T. Nguyen Minh, J.J. Sidor, R.H. Petrov, L. Kestens, Texture evolution during
asymmetrical warm rolling and subsequent annealing of electrical steel, Mater. Sci.
For. 702–703 (2011) 758–761.
[14] N. Yoshinaga, L. Kestens, B.C. De Cooman, α→ γ→ α transformation texture for-
mation at cold-rolled ultra low carbon steel surfaces, Materials Science Forum,
Trans Tech Publications, 2005, pp. 1267–1272.
[15] T. Tomida, A new process to develop (100) texture in silicon steel sheets, J. Mater.
Eng. Perform. 5 (3) (1996) 316–322.
[16] Y. He, E. Hilinski, J. Li, Texture evolution of a non-oriented electrical steel cold
rolled at directions different from the hot rolling direction, Metallurg. Mater. Trans.
A 46 (11) (2015) 5350–5365.
[17] M. Mehdi, Y. He, E.J. Hilinski, A. Edrisy, Effect of skin pass rolling reduction rate on
the texture evolution of a non-oriented electrical steel after inclined cold rolling, J.
Magnet. Magnet. Mater. 429 (2017) 148–160.
[18] Y. He, E.J. Hilinski, Skew rolling and its effect on the deformation textures of non-
oriented electrical steels, J. Mater. Process. Technol. 242 (2017) 182–195.
[19] H. Barkhausen, Gerausche bien ummagnetisieren von eisen, Physikalishe Zeitschr.
20 (1919) 401–403.
[20] S. Tiitto, Influence of elastic and plastic strain on the magnetization process in Fe-
3.5%Si, IEEE Trans. Magnet. MAG-12 (1976) 855–857.
[21] Y. He, M. Mehdi, E.J. Hilinski, A. Edrisy, Through-process characterization of local
anisotropy of Non-oriented electrical steel using magnetic Barkhausen noise, J.
Magnet. Magnet. Mater. 453 (2018) 149–162.
[22] C.G. Stefanita, Chapter 2 Barkhausen Noise as a Magnetic Nondestructive Testing
Technique, in: R. Hull, J.R.M. Osgood, J. Parisi, J.H. Warlimont (Eds.), From Bulk to
Nano, The Many Sides of Magnetism, Springer, Berlin, 2008, pp. 19–40.
[23] M. Birsan, J.A. Szpunar, T.W. Krause, D.L. Atherton, Magnetic Barkhausen noise
study of domain wall dynamics in grain oriented 3% Si-Fe, IEEE Trans. Magnet. 32
(2) (1996) 527–534.
[24] A.A. Samimi, T.W. Krause, L. Clapham, M. Gallaugher, Y. Ding, P. Ghosh,
A.M. Knight, Correlation between ac core loss and surface magnetic Barkhausen
noise in electric motor steel, J. Nondestruct. Evaluat. 33 (4) (2014) 663–669.
[25] K. Hartmann, A.J. Moses, T. Meydan, A system for measurement of AC Barkhausen
noise in electrical steels, J. Magnet. Magnet. Mater. 254 (2003) 318–320.
[26] ASTM E2627-13, Standard Practice for Determining Average Grain Size Using
Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) in Fully Recrystallized Polycrystalline
Materials, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2013.
[27] ASTM A343/A343M-14, Standard Test Method for Alternating-Current Magnetic
Properties of Materials at Power Frequencies Using Wattmeter-Ammeter-Voltmeter
Method and 25-cm Epstein Test Frame, ASTM International, West Conshohocken,
PA, 2014.
[28] KJS Associates/Magnetic Instrumentation Inc. Technical reference manual: com-
puter-automated magnetic hysteresigraph for testing of magnetically soft materials,
model SMT-700, 2015, 1–74.
[29] Stresstech Group (2013). Rollscan 350 Operating Instructions, V1.0b. 1–39.
[30] Stresstech Group (2015). MicroScan 600 Operating Instructions, V.5.4b. 1–37.
[31] Y. He, M. Mehdi, E.J. Hilinski, A. Edrisy, S. Mukundan, A. Mollaeian, N.C. Kar,
Evaluation of local anisotropy of magnetic response from non-oriented electrical
steel by magnetic barkhausen noise, IEEE Trans Magnet. 99 (2018) 1–5.
[32] Deveci, M. Stresstech Bulletin 2: The Properties of Barkhausen Noise. https://www.
stresstech.com/download_file/view_inline/381/.
11
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 491 (2019) 165597
[33] D. Raabe, Overview on basic types of hot rolling textures of steels, Steel Res. Int. 74
(5) (2003) 327–337.
[34] R.K. Ray, J.J. Jonas, R.E. Hook, Cold rolling and annealing textures in low carbon
and extra low carbon steels, Int. Mater. Rev. 39 (4) (1994) 129–172.
[35] M. Hölscher, D. Raabe, K. Lücke, Rolling and recrystallization textures of bcc steels,
Steel Res. 62 (12) (1991) 567–575.
[36] J.J. Sidor, K. Verbeken, E. Gomes, J. Schneider, P.R. Calvillo, L.A. Kestens, Through
process texture evolution and magnetic properties of high Si non-oriented electrical
steels, Mater. Characteriz. 71 (2012) 49–57.
[37] F.J. Humphreys, M. Hatherly, Recrystallization and Related Annealing Phenomena,
Elsevier, 2012.
[38] P. Gobernado, R.H. Petrov, L.A.I. Kestens, Recrystallized {311}〈136〉 orientation in
ferrite steels, Script. Mater. 66 (9) (2012) 623–626.
[39] A. Samet-Meziou, A.L. Helbert-Etter, T. Baudin, Comparison between re-
crystallization mechanisms in copper and Ti-IF steel after a low amount of de-
formation, Mater. Sci. Eng.: A 528 (10–11) (2011) 3829–3832.
[40] W.B. Hutchinson, Deformation substructures and recrystallisation, Mater. Sci.
Forum. 558 (2007) 13–22.
[41] K.M. Lee, M.Y. Huh, H.J. Lee, J.T. Park, J.S. Kim, E.J. Shin, O. Engler, Effect of hot
band grain size on development of textures and magnetic properties in 2.0% Si non-
oriented electrical steel sheet, J. Magnet. Magnet. Mater. 396 (2015) 53–64.
[42] S.S.F. de Dafe, S. da Costa Paolinelli, A.B. Cota, Influence of thermomechanical
processing on shear bands formation and magnetic properties of a 3% Si non-or-
iented electrical steel, J. Magnet. Magnet. Mater. 323 (24) (2011) 3234–3238.
[43] J.T. Park, J.A. Szpunar, Evolution of recrystallization texture in nonoriented elec-
trical steels, Acta Mater. 51 (11) (2003) 3037–3051.
[44] D. Dorner, S. Zaefferer, D. Raabe, Retention of the Goss orientation between mi-
crobands during cold rolling of an Fe3%Si single crystal, Acta mater. 55 (7) (2007)
2519–2530.
[45] T. Nguyen-Minh, J.J. Sidor, R.H. Petrov, L.A.I. Kestens, Occurrence of shear bands
in rotated Goss ({110}〈110〉) orientations of metals with bcc crystal structure,
Script. Mater. 67 (12) (2012) 935–938.
[46] I.L. Dillamore, J.G. Roberts, A.C. Bush, Occurrence of shear bands in heavily rolled
cubic metals, Metal Sci. 13 (2) (1979) 73–77.
[47] M. Sanjari, M. Mehdi, Y. He, E.J. Hilinski, S. Yue, L.A. Kestens, A. Edrisy, Tracking
the evolution of annealing textures from individual deformed grains in a cross-
rolled non-oriented electrical steel, Metall. Mater. Trans. A 48 (12) (2017)
6013–6026.
[48] J. Wang, L.I. Jun, X.F. Wang, J.J. Tian, C.H. Zhang, S.G. Zhang, Effect of heating
rate on microstructure evolution and magnetic properties of cold rolled non-or-
iented electrical steel, J. Iron Steel Res. Int. 17 (11) (2010) 54–61.
[49] J.B. Goodenough, Summary of losses in magnetic materials, IEEE Trans. Magnet. 38
(5) (2002) 3398–3408.
[50] C.P. Steinmetz, On the law of hysteresis, Proceed. IEEE 72 (2) (1984) 197–221.
[51] A. Chaudhury, R. Khatirkar, N.N. Viswanathan, V. Singal, A. Ingle, S. Joshi,
I. Samajdar, Low silicon non-grain-oriented electrical steel: Linking magnetic
properties with metallurgical factors, J. Magnet. Magnet. Mater. 313 (1) (2007)
21–28.
[52] C.K. Hou, Effect of silicon on the loss separation and permeability of laminated
steels, J. Magnet. Magnet. Mater. 162 (2–3) (1996) 280–290.
[53] G. Bertotti, G. Di Schino, A.F. Milone, F. Fiorillo, On the effect of grain size on
magnetic losses of 3% non-oriented SiFe, Le J. de Physi. Colloques 46 (C6) (1985)
C6–385.
[54] J. Qin, P. Yang, W. Mao, F. Ye, Effect of texture and grain size on the magnetic flux
density and core loss of cold-rolled high silicon steel sheets, J. Magnet. Magnet.
Mater. 393 (2015) 537–543.
[55] N. Leuning, S. Steentjes, K. Hameyer, Effect of grain size and magnetic texture on
iron-loss components in NO electrical steel at different frequencies, J. Magnet.
Magnet. Mater. 469 (2019) 373–382.
[56] E. Stephenson, A. Marder, The effects of grain size on the core loss and permeability
of motor lamination steel, IEEE Transact. Magnet. 22 (2) (1986) 101–106.
[57] M. Shiozaki, Y. Kurosaki, The effects of grain size on the magnetic properties of
nonoriented electrical steel sheets, J. Mater. Eng. 11 (1) (1989) 37–43.