Advanced Microstructure Studies of an Austenitic Material Using EBSD in Elevated Temperature In-Situ Tensile Testing in SEM

In this study an advanced method for investigation of the microstructure such as electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) together with in-situ tensile test in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) has been used at room temperature and 300°C. EBSD analyses provide information about crystallographic orientation in the microstructure and dislocation structures caused by deformation. The in-situ tensile tests enabled the same area to be investigated at different strain levels. For the same macroscopic strain values a lower average misorientation in individual grains at elevated temperature indicates that less residual strain at grain level are developed compared to room temperature. For both temperatures, while large scatters in grain average misorientation are observed for grains of similar size, there seems to be a tendency showing that larger grains may accumulate somewhat more strains.