Tensile deformation induced texture transformation in austenitic stainless steel

Abstract

Texture patterns of the starting γ and transformed α structural phases were obtained from AISI 304 stainless steel sheets subjected to varying levels of tensile deformation using high energy X-ray diffraction in combination with the texture enhanced Rietveld method. The use of this method allows the simultaneous determination of the orientation distribution functions (ODF) of both phases, even for small α-martensite fractions of the order of 5%. The texture patterns are analyzed in terms of the crystallographic orientation relation between the starting and transformed phases and the preferential formation of certain variants of this relation.

Keywords:

• Phase transformation
• Rietveld method
• Texture patterns
• Tensile deformation

Acknowledgments

This work would not have been possible without the outstanding support of S. W. Robertson, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, L. Lutterotti, University of Trento, Italy, and the BESSRC team at the APS. Use of the Advanced Photon Source was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, under Contract No. W-31-109-Eng-38.