Thermal Stability Study of Ultrafine Grained 304L Stainless Steel Produced by Martensitic Process

An ultrafine grain 304L stainless steel with average grain size of about 650 nm was produced by martensitic process. 10 mm as-received sheets were 80% cold rolled in the temperature of −15 °C and then annealed at 700 °C for 300 min to obtain ultrafine grained microstructure. The results showed that the ultrafine grained 304L steel has yield strength of 720 MPa, tensile strength of about 920 MPa, and total elongation of 47% which is about twice that of coarse grain structure. The effect of annealing temperature (750-900 °C) on the grain growth kinetics was modeled by isothermal kinetics equation which resulted in the grain growth exponent (n) and activation energy for grain growth of 4.8 and 455 KJ/mol, respectively. This activation energy was also compared with those for other austenitic steels to better understanding of the nature of grain growth and atoms mobility during annealing. It was found that activation energy for grain growth is about twice higher than self-diffusion activation energy of austenite that is related to the Zener pinning effects of the second phase particles.