Correlation between microstructure and mechanical properties before and after reversion of metastable austenitic stainless steels

摘要

Reversion treatments are a way to improve the mechanical response of metastable austenitic\udstainless steels by means of grain refinement. To effectively apply those treatments, the steel\udmust be previously deformed to induce a significant amount of martensitic transformation. In\udthis work, the effect of reversion treatments was studied on a commercial AISI 301LN grade\udsubjected to an industrial cold rolling process, with thickness reductions not higher than 40 pct.\udMicrostructural changes and evolution of both monotonic and cyclic mechanical properties\udwere investigated after cold rolling and upon reversion treatments. Results revealed that the\udfiner austenitic microstructure obtained after reversion leads to an interesting combination of\udproperties, with strong increments in hardness and yield strength, and also fatigue limit\udimprovement, as compared to the initial annealed condition.