Textures of Materials : ICOTOM 14

Book excerpt: To the materials science community, Texture is an important property which describes the relative orientations of the various material elements which constitute the microstructure. These elements are usually the crystalline grains; each with a different orientation of its crystal lattice. However, morphological textures, such as the arrangement of fibers in a composite material, also have to be considered. In rare cases, the texture is random; with all possible orientations being equally represented in the material. But, usually, processing of the material has caused the texture to become non-random; with a consequent anisotropy of the material properties. Thus, not only metallurgists and materials scientists take an interest in textures, but also physicists, mathematicians, geologists, mechanical engineers and others. The concept of texture is therefore a very important and almost unavoidable aspect of material exploitation, and the present authoritative coverage of the topic should be essential reading for anybody working in any materials-related field.