Microstresses and anisotropic mechanical behaviour of duplex stainless steels

• The evolution of deformation during monotonic and cyclic loading of a two-phase material like duplex stainless steel is more complex than in a single-phase material. One reason for this is the microstresses formed due to differences in thermal and mechanical properties between the two phases. Another factor contributing to a complex load partitioning between the two phases is that hot and cold rolled duplex stainless steel exhibits anisotropic material properties. The aim of this thesis has therefore been to investigate the influence of microstresses and an isotropy on the mechanical properties of duplex stainless steels.The effect of microstresses was clearly revealed when X-ray diffraction was used to study the evolution of microstresses during cyclic loading. Even if the hardness and yield strength were found to be higher in the austenitic phase compared to the ferritic phase more plastic deformation occurs in austenite during cyclic tensile loading. This was also confirmed by transmission electron microscopy investigations of the dislocation structure in both phases. The main reason for the higher degree of plastic deformation in the austenitic phase is that the microstresses are tensile in this phase and compressive in the ferritic phase.Measurements of the crystallographic texture were used as input to theoretical predictions of both elastic and plastic anisotropy. The predicted anisotropic material properties were then used in finite element simulations to study the flow behavior and the load partitioning between phases during deformation in different loading directions. The experiments and the simulations show that the microstresses and the anisotropy make the load partitioning between the two phases dependent on the loading direction. For loading in the rolling direction, both phases deform plastically to the same degree, while more plastic deformation occurs in the austenitic phase during loading in the transverse direction. For loading in the 45°-direction more plastic deformation occurs in the ferritic phase.The anisotropic flow behaviour of the as-received material can be predicted from the crystallographic texture. However, it was found that prestraining introduces a transient work hardening behaviour during the second stage deformation, whjch causes an anisotropic flow behaviour immediately after yielding that cannot be described by the crystallographic texture. Instead the an isotropy can be associated with the rearrangement of the dislocation structure that occurs during changes in the loading path. Prestraining also alters the microstresses from being higher in the transverse direction to being higher in the rolling direction. At the same time the fatigue limit is changed from being higher in the rolling direction to being higher in the transverse direction. This study shows that microstresses have a significant influence on fatigue crack initiation and the fatigue limit of duplex stainless steels.

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