Papers by Author: José Barros

Abstract: Crystallographic texture has an important effect on the magnetic quality of electrical steel: a specific texture parameter A is defined and used to estimate the magnetic quality of texture components. It is shown that obtaining the best possible texture in non oriented electrical steel can reduce the losses with 1,5 W/kg. Two production schemes for high silicon electrical steel are described: a conventional processing through hot and cold rolling with adequate temperatures and cooling rates and an immersion-diffusion process by hot dipping in a Si- and Al-rich bath followed by diffusion annealing. The texture evolution in these experimental materials is under study and first results are reported for conventional alloys (rolling procedure) and for immersion-diffusion alloys, which are annealed after dipping in order to obtain a controlled concentration gradient with high Si and/or Al at the surface or a homogeneous Si and/or Al-content over the thickness.

Abstract: The effect of Si and Al diffusion from a coating in the microstructure of electrical steels have been investigated for three different processing routes. In general the final texture is not affected by the diffusion of Si or Al from the coating whereas the grain size and mor- phology can be affected if the silicon content of the substrate is low enough to allow phase transformation. The gamma to alpha phase transformation caused by the diffusion of Si and Al determines the grain size and morphology resulting in columnar grain growth. The evolu- tion of the microstructures during the diffusion annealing for the production of high Si steels shows some common features with the microstructure evolution during the grain growth in conventional low silicon (Si < 3 wt.%) electrical steels.

Abstract: The chemical and physical interaction between Fe-Si alloys in the range 0-3.8 Si wt% and a molten Al-(Si 25wt%) alloy at 800 °C has been studied for different reaction times (from 0.1 to 200s) by hot dipping tests. Several intermetallic phases have been identified, Fe2Al5, τ1-Al3Fe3Si2, τ2-Al12Fe6Si5, τ3- Al2FeSi and τ4- Al3FeSi2, which already were reported in the literature dealing with the interaction between iron and molten Al-Si alloys. In addition an ordered phase Fe3Si (D03) appears in contact with the Fe-Si substrate. Diffusion reaction and solidification phenomena appear to be involved in the developing of the coating. The growth kinetic has been studied and diffusion appears as the step controlling the intermetallic compounds growth. Special attention was paid to the effect of the microstructure of the dipped sheet on the interaction with the molten alloy. The higher deformed structures react faster; this effect can be explained by the faster diffusion through high diffusivity paths like grain boundaries and dislocations.