Tailoring the microstructure and mechanical properties of AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel via cold rolling and reversion annealing

Tensile properties of cold rolled AISI 316L stainless steel after full reversion of martensite to austenite, recrystallization of retained austenite, and grain growth were studied at 850, 950, and 1050 °C. At higher temperatures, it was found that the kinetics of the reversion and recrystallization processes enhance but coarser grain sizes will be obtained at the end of recrystallization. At 1050 °C, appreciable grain growth was observed after the completion of the recrystallization process, which was not the case for a low temperature of 850 °C. At the stage of full recrystallization, by decreasing the annealing temperature, the yield stress (YS) and the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) values increased and total elongation decreased, which was related to the grain size strengthening by the Hall-Petch law. However, the Hall-Petch slope for the UTS was found to be much smaller than that of YS, which reveals that YS has greater grain size dependency. The latter was ascribed to the improved work-hardening behavior and enhanced transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) effect by coarsening of grain size. To obtain high-strength and ductile steel with tensile toughness higher than 300 MJ/m3 and yield ratio of ∼0.5, the average grain size of ∼3 μm was found to be desirable.