Strength of nanostructured austenitic steel 316LN at cryogenic temperatures

Abstract

The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of nano-refinement on the properties of austenitic steel. The material with the initial grain size of 40-50pm was subjected to hydrostatic extrusion at a room temperature to the total accumulated strain exceeding 1. The microstructure developed was investigated by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Focus Ion Beam (FIB). The strength of the extruded samples was tested at 293K, 77K and 4.2K by means of cryostat for static tensile tests. The results show that the hydrostatically extruded steel 316LN has excellent strength in cryogenic conditions, which make this material interesting for applications in cryogenic devices.