Neutron diffraction with RANS for industrial "on-site" applications

Takamura, Masato*; Iwamoto, Chihiro*; Xu, P. G.   ; Kakuta, Ryunosuke*; Kurihara, Ryo*; Hakoyama, Tomoyuki*; Ikeda, Yoshimasa*; Suzuki, Hiroshi  ; Otake, Yoshie*

High strength steels are becoming more and more important in automotive body structures for good weight reduction, providing further requirement in the balance between strength and formability. Numerical models in forming simulations taking into account the texture evolution may accurately analyze macroscopic plastic behavior, through referring to local surface texture measurement using Electron backscatter diffraction or X-ray diffraction. In contrast, neutron diffraction may measure the microstructure factors including bulk-averaged texture, enable to more deeply understand the mechanisms of deformation behavior. Such neutron diffraction studies usually require large-scale experimental facilities like a reactor and a large accelerator, so meet certain difficulty in the instrumental accessibility. To solve these problems, Riken Accelerator-driven Compact Neutron Source (RANS) has been developed. On-site evaluation of microstructural factors enables us to analyze metal deformation processes more efficiently. Authors have recently succeeded in accurately measuring the texture evolution of an IF steel and also in determining the retained austenite volume fraction of multi-phase steels, by optimizing the beam condition and layout of collimators, samples, detectors, etc. These results show the possibility of practical use of an in-house compact neutron source in laboratories of universities, research institutes and industrial firms.