Tensile and bending strengths of stainless steel sheets with strength-gradient through thickness direction

摘要

In the plastic forming of steel sheet, the deformation nonuniformly occurs through thickness direction of materials. For example, in the case of bending deformation, the stress and the strain continuously change through thickness direction and reach highest level at the surface and lowest one at the center. Therefore, a selective strengthening considering the local stress and strain distribution would be expected as an effective method for further improvement of mechanical performance. In this study, solution nitriding and vacuum annealing were applied to stainless steel to produce the strength-gradient steel sheets, and then the tensile and bending properties were investigated to clarify the effect of strength-gradient through thickness direction on the mechanical properties.