The effect of precipitate size on magnetic domain behavior in grain-oriented electrical steels

Precipitates in the form of grain growth inhibitors play an essential role in the production of grain-oriented electrical steels, as they promote the development of Goss texture during secondary recrystallization. However, the presence of precipitates in the final material can have a detrimental effect on loss and permeability, as they impede domain wall motion during the magnetization process. In previous work [K. Jenkins and M. Lindenmo, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 320, 2423 (2008)], a conventional grain-oriented electrical steel was presented that contained very fine precipitates, which did not damage the bulk magnetic properties. In this article the influence of precipitate size is investigated by comparing local Barkhausen noise measurements and electron backscatter diffraction analysis for a number of grain-oriented electrical steels, which are metallurgically similar except for the size and abundance of precipitates.