In situ studies of evolution of microstructure with temperature in heavily deformed Ti-modified austenitic stainless steel by X-ray diffraction technique

▶ Heavy deformation of Ti-modified austenitic stainless steel alloy introduces high population of dislocation inside the sample. ▶ The dislocations inside the samples are randomly spaced in the form of loosely bound tangles. ▶ During the earliest stage of annealing, when thermal energy is supplied, the dislocations first rearrange themselves to form the lowest length scale substructure (domain). ▶ Formation of domain results in an increase in dislocation density at the domain boundary which leads to the growth of domain. ▶ For the first time, X-ray diffraction technique has been applied to study the evolution of these lowest length scale substructures (domains) at the earliest stage of annealing, both with time and temperature. ▶ Two different mechanisms have been proposed to be involved at the earliest stage of annealing. ▶ The nature of the domain growth has been modeled using the proposed mechanisms.