The Formation of Submicrometer Scale Grains in a Super304H Steel during Multiple Compressions at 700°C

The deformation behavior and the microstructure evolution in a 304-type austenitic stainless steel were studied in multiple forging tests at temperature of 700°C. The flow stresses increased to its maximum value with straining to about 1 and, then, slightly decreased resulting in a steady state deformation behavior at strains above 3. The structural changes were characterized by the development of a spatial net of deformation subboundaries, the misorientations of which increased to the values typical of conventional grain boundaries. The number of ultrafine grains increased with straining, leading to development of submicrocrystalline structure. The fraction of submicrocrystalline structure composed of ultrafine grains with an average size of about 300 nm exceeded 0.7 after straining to 2.