In situ and ex situ neutron diffraction study on deformation behavior of high-nitrogen, Ni-free duplex stainless steel

In situ and ex situ neutron diffraction were used to investigate the deformation behavior of high-nitrogen, nickel-free duplex stainless steel. During in situ deformation, both ferrite and austenite deformed plastically to the same degree. The stacking fault energy of austenite was evaluated to be 36.2 mJ m–2 from ex situ neutron profiles, which correlated well with the observed deformation microstructure of twin formation. A significant decrease in the effective particle size of austenite was due to the formation of deformation twins.