The phenomenon of variant selection in a bainitic steel containing retained austenite was investigated. The steel was hot-rolled below the Tnr to true strains of epsilon = 0.2 and epsilon = 0.8 in the austenite temperature range. The orientation relationships between bainite and austenite are expressed in Rodrigues space. A strain of 0.2 is shown to be insufficient to induce variant selection. A hot deformation of 0.8 leads to a much smaller number of variants being created, which are shown to be related to the slip systems active during austenite deformation.
Godet, S., Kim, B., Jacques, P., Szpunar, J., Jonas, J., & Delannay, F. (2003). Microtextural study of variant selection by EBSD in a bainitic steel containing retained austenite. Journal de Physique IV, 112, 309-312. https://doi.org/10.1051/jp4:2003890 (Original work published 2003)