Effect of borides on hot deformation behavior and microstructure evolution of powder metallurgy high borated stainless steel

To investigate borides effect on the hot deformation behavior and microstructure evolution of powder metallurgy high borated stainless steel, hot compression tests at the temperatures of 950–1150°C and the strain rates of 0.01–10s−1 were performed. Flow stress curves indicated that borides increased the material's stress level at low temperature but the strength was sacrificed at temperatures above 1100°C. A hyperbolic-sine equation was used to characterize the dependence of the flow stress on the deformation temperature and strain rate. The hot deformation activation energy and stress exponent were determined to be 355kJ/mol and 3.2, respectively. The main factors leading to activation energy and stress exponent of studied steel lower than those of commercial 304 stainless steel were discussed. Processing maps at the strains of 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7 showed that flow instability mainly concentrated at 950–1150°C and strain rate higher than 0.6s−1. Results of microstructure illustrated that dynamic recrystallization was fully completed at both high temperature-low strain rate and low temperature-high strain rate. In the instability region cracks were generated in addition to cavities. Interestingly, borides maintained a preferential orientation resulting from particle rotation during compression. [Display omitted] •The decrement of activation energy was affected by boride and boron solution.•The decrease of stress exponent was influenced by composition and Cottrell atmosphere.•Boride represented a preferential orientation caused by particle rotation.