Microtexture Determination and Its Applications

A cornerstone in the study of both natural and technological materials is characterisation of microstructure. In the widest sense this topic encompasses, for all phases present: morphology, including size and shape distributions; chemical composition; crystallographic parameters, including orientation and orientation relationships. A landmark advance for the materials community occurred with the genesis of 'microtexture', which for the first time provided integration of crystallographic parameters and other aspects of the microstructure. A definition of microtexture is: 'a population of crystallographic orientations whose individual components are linked to their location within the microstructure.' The term…