Tensile properties of a nanocrystalline 316L austenitic stainless steel

A nanocrystalline 316L austenitic stainless steel sample (mean grain size ∼40 nm) was prepared by means of surface mechanical attrition treatment. Uniaxial tensile tests at room temperature showed the nanocrystalline sample exhibits an extremely high yield strength up to 1450 MPa, which still follows the Hall-Petch relation extrapolated from the coarse-grained material.