The significance of phase reversion-induced nanograined/ultrafine-grained (NG/UFG) structure on the strain hardening behavior and deformation mechanism in copper-bearing antimicrobial austenitic stainless steel

The unique concept of phase reversion involving severe deformation parent austenite into martensite, followed by annealing for a short duration, whereby the strain-induced martensite reverts to austenite, was adopted obtain nano-grained/ultrafine-grained (NG/UFG) structure in Cu-bearing biomedical austenitic stainless steel resulting high strength-high ductility combination. Work hardening and accompanying mechanism are two important aspects that govern mechanical behavior devices. Thus, post-mortem electron microscopy strained region carried out explore differences mechanisms induced grain refinement, while strain analyzed Crussard-Jaoul (C-J) analysis tensile stress-strain data. consisted four stages strongly affected structure. Twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) governing NG/UFG contributed good ductility. In striking contrast, transformation-induced (TRIP) coarse-grained (CG) counterpart mechanism. When size is less than ~1 μm, increase energy stability significantly reduce possibility transformation such there distinct transition from nanoscale twinning CG explained terms – relationship.