Thermally driven evolution of deformation nanotwins into nanolaminated structures with low-angle boundaries in 316L stainless steel

Abstract

Although twin boundary is a kind of low-energy boundary, the interactions between dislocations and twin boundaries promote the detwinning of twin layers. In this work, we investigated the thermally driven evolution of deformation nanotwins in 316L stainless steel. After high-temperature annealing, deformation nanotwins evolve into nanolaminated structures with low-angle boundaries, which are difficult to form in materials with low stacking fault energies. We explored the roles of dislocations and twin boundaries, as well as their interaction mechanism underlying microstructural evolution.