In metastable austenitic stainless steels, strain-induced martensitic transformation during plastic deformation enhances work hardening of the material, increasing its strength and in some cases also ductility.1,2) The presence of α’-martensite, however, may increase the susceptibility of these materials to hydrogen embrittlement phenomena, for example delayed cracking.3–6) Delayed cracking can...

This paper presents a series of tests on cold-formed stainless steel bolted connections. The test specimens were fabricated from three different types of stainless steel, including austenitic stainless steel EN1.4301 (AISI 304) and EN1.4571 (AISI 316Ti having small amount of titanium) as well as lean duplex stainless steel EN1.4162 (AISI S32101). The material properties of the three types of st...

The Fe-Cr-Ni stainless steels are well known for their ductile behaviour at cryogenic temperatures. This implies development and evolution of plastic strain fields in the stainless steel components subjected to thermo-mechanical loads at low temperatures. The evolution of plastic strain fields is usually associated with two phenomena: ductile damage and strain induced martensitic transformation...