Novel mechanical characterization of austenite and ferrite phases within duplex stainless steel

Abstract

The microstructure and micromechanical properties of the constitutive phases of a particular duplex stainless steel in various processing conditions have been characterized. Hardness (H), elastic modulus (E) and H/E cartography maps were obtained by using a high-speed nanoindentation mapping technique. Small-scale H and E evolution at different processing conditions has been investigated by statistical analysis of a large number of nanoindentations (10,000 imprints per sample). Two mechanically distinct phases, ferrite (α) and austenite (γ), were deconvoluted from this dataset using Ulm and Constantinides’ method, with the remaining values assigned to a third mechanical phase linked to composite-like (containing α/γ interphase boundaries) regions. These mechanical property phase assessments were supplemented by overlaying crystallographic phase maps obtained by electron backscattered diffraction. An excellent correlation between microstructure and small-scale mechanical properties was achieved, especially when considering the ratio H/E.