Effect of Microstructural Anisotropy on the Electrochemical Behavior of Rolled Mild Steel

Warm rolling of a mild steel at 600 °C generates a microstructural anisotropy in the different planes corresponding to rolling direction, normal direction and transverse direction manifested by differences in the grain structure and the type of grain boundaries. The work concentrates on studying the effect of this microstructural anisotropy on the electrochemical behavior of the steel plates using microscopic examination and electron backscattered diffraction. The results show that the corrosion behavior of the samples depends mainly on the fraction of high-angle grain boundaries or corresponding average grain size, which, in turn, depends on the degree of deformation on different planes determined by the extent of thickness reduction. On the other hand, low-angle grain boundaries have little effect on the corrosion of all the three different planes.