Influence of Warm Forging on Mechanical and Microstructural Properties of 316L Steel

Abstract

AbstractThe warm deformed microstructure of 316L austenitic stainless steel has been investigated through the usage of Electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) analysis. In this study, we recognize the impact of warm deformation and annealing on the mechanical and microstructural properties of 316L steel. From the micrograph, it discovered that refinement of grain occurs after the warm forging of the sample, and refinement of microstructure also takes place after warm deformation because of conversion of alpha ferrite to austenite. Solution annealed sample after warm forging offers higher mechanical strength due to the conversion of homogenized and equiaxed grains of austenite. From the experimental result, it was observed that hardness increases after growing the percentage of forging; however, impact strength decreases after growing the percentage of forging. The size of the grain was reduced after deformation but homogeneous distributions of grains were obtained after solution annealing of deformed samples. Solution annealing after deformation gives optimum impact strength and hardness; therefore, from experimental results we conclude that solution annealing after deformation produces homogeneous microstructure which gives optimum strength ductility.KeywordsAnnealingDeformationEBSDMicrostructure