Partial Texture Analysis

The texture is the orientation distribution function of the crystallites of a polycrystalline sample. Being a continuous function of three variables, it requires a large number of values for its complete description. The texture can be expressed in terms of a series expansion. It then requires a large number of coefficients for its complete description. When all functional values or all coefficients are determined from experimental measurements we speak of complete texture analysis. The most important methods for complete texture analysis are individual orientation measurements of a large number of crystals and pole figure measurement followed by pole figure inversion. If only a limited number of values of the texture function or a few of its coefficients are being determined we speak of "partial texture analysis". The most important methods of partial texture analysis are the fixed angle texture analyzer and the measurement of the anisotropy of physical properties such as Young’s modulus magnetic properties, thermal expansion and others.