Enhanced fatigue properties of nanostructured austenitic SUS 316L stainless steel

The present communication reports on the substantial improvement in monotonic and cyclic strength of austenitic 316L stainless steel nanostructured during equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). The ultimate tensile strength and the fatigue limit after ECAP exceed 1.3 GPa and 550 MPa, respectively, while the ductility was not fully compromised. Microstructural observations showed that these excellent mechanical properties can be attributed to the nanostructure created due to intensive twinning, with an inter-twin spacing of 30–40 nm.