Experimental determination of plastic spin in polycrystalline materials

Plastic deformation of polycrystalline materials is accompanied by crystal lattice rotations which lead to texture changes. Part of these changes can be represented by the rotation of a common reference system formed by the symmetry elements of the texture function. The symmetry elements can be found with an accuracy of similar to 0.5 degrees using an autocorrelation function of the orientation distribution function (ODF). This part of the texture change is related to plastic spin. A second part of the texture changes can be expressed by an intercorrelation parameter (similarity degree) of the two textures observed before and after deformation, respectively. Using this method, the texture changes after 20% elongation in different directions to the rolling direction of a recrystallized aluminium sheet were studied. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.