Abstract
To investigate the tensile deformation behavior of a lean duplex stainless steel (S32101) from the viewpoints of plastic deformability among phases or grains, we performed static tensile tests, in situ neutron diffraction, and white x-ray diffraction experiments at room temperature. In the static tensile tests, the S32101 steel displayed a larger uniform elongation and a better tensile strength–uniform elongation balance than a commercial SUS329J4L duplex stainless steel. A larger uniform elongation of S32101 is associated with the macroscopic work hardening behavior that a work hardening rate higher than the flow stress can maintain up until high true strains. From the experimental results of synchrotron radiation white x-ray diffraction experiments, the hard phase of S32101 was changed from the ferrite (α) phase to austenite (γ) one during tensile deformation. This led to a larger stress partitioning between the phases at the latter stage of deformation. From the experimental results of in situ neutron diffraction, it was found that the stress partitioning of the γ phase in the S32101 was the largest among the present results. Therefore, the larger work hardening rate of S32101 can be explained by the large stress partitioning of the γ phase, that between γ and α phases and γ volume fraction.
