Evaluation of Grain Boundary Network and Improvement of Intergranular Cracking Resistance in 316L Stainless Steel after Grain Boundary Engineering
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Experimental Methods
2.1. Materials
2.2. Stress Corrosion Cracking
3. Results
3.1. Grain Boundary Character Distribution (GBCD)
3.2. Topological Characteristics of Grain clusters
3.3. Evaluation of Random Boundary Network
3.4. SCC Cracks
4. Discussion
4.1. Thermo-mechanical Process for GBE
4.2. Quantification of the Extent of GBE
5. Conclusions
- (1)
- Warm-rolling plus annealing is an applicable procedure to increase the fraction of low-∑ CSL boundaries of large-sized 316L stainless steel in terms of GBE. The SCC test shows that the GBE 316L sample exhibited a higher resistance to intergranular SCC than the sample without GBE treatment.
- (2)
- The high fraction of ∑3n boundaries is a highly desired result of GBE processing. However, there is a large difference between the boundary number fraction and the boundary length fraction. Although the length fraction of ∑3n boundaries can be increased to more than 70% after GBE, the number fraction is only approximately 50%. This result is correlated with the mechanism difference to form the ∑3n boundaries. Most of the ∑3 boundaries were generated via twinning operations, and they had a larger size on average. All the high-order ∑3n boundaries were formed by encounters of grain growth, having a smaller size on average.
- (3)
- A connected non-twin boundary network still exists in the 316L after GBE. The relatively low number fraction of twin boundaries and the formation of grain clusters are contributing factors.
- (4)
- The term through-view random boundary path (TRBP) is proposed to evaluate the extent of GBE. As the twin boundary fraction increases, not only does the number of TRBPs decrease, but the normalized length of the minimum TRBP (DR) increases monotonically, which leads to intergranular SCC propagating through a longer path with zigzag. Therefore, intergranular SCC becomes more difficult and even prevented.
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Fe | C | Si | Mn | P | S | Cr | Ni | Mo |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Balance | 0.028 | 0.47 | 1.03 | 0.044 | 0.005 | 16.26 | 10.10 | 2.08 |
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Liu, T.; Xia, S.; Bai, Q.; Zhou, B.; Lu, Y.; Shoji, T. Evaluation of Grain Boundary Network and Improvement of Intergranular Cracking Resistance in 316L Stainless Steel after Grain Boundary Engineering. Materials 2019, 12, 242. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12020242
Liu T, Xia S, Bai Q, Zhou B, Lu Y, Shoji T. Evaluation of Grain Boundary Network and Improvement of Intergranular Cracking Resistance in 316L Stainless Steel after Grain Boundary Engineering. Materials. 2019; 12(2):242. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12020242
Chicago/Turabian StyleLiu, Tingguang, Shuang Xia, Qin Bai, Bangxin Zhou, Yonghao Lu, and Tetsuo Shoji. 2019. "Evaluation of Grain Boundary Network and Improvement of Intergranular Cracking Resistance in 316L Stainless Steel after Grain Boundary Engineering" Materials 12, no. 2: 242. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12020242