A Comparative Study on the Cyclic Behavior of Austenite/Ferrite Phases Characterized by the Nanoindentation

Abstract

The cyclic deformation behavior of the austenite and ferrite phase in an austenite-ferrite duplex stainless steel was studied by using the load-controlled cyclic nanoindentation approach. The results showed that the maximum penetration depth onto both austenite and ferrite phases increased continuously while the rate decreased gradually and finally reached to a constant during the repeated indentation. Both transient state and quasi-steady state were observed for the penetration depth per cycle on both of the austenite and ferrite phases with the increased cycles. By contrast, both the penetration depth and rate per cycle into the austenite phase were larger than those into the ferrite phase. This was ascribed to the stress-induced densification in the austenite and ferrite phases and strain-induced transformed martensite in the austenite phase.