Strain rate and temperature effects on the flow behavior and microstructure of X2CrNiMoN22-5-3 duplex stainless steel

Within this study the mechanical behavior of a X2CrNiMoN22-5-3 duplex stainless steel is characterized under compressive loading in a wide range of strain rates from 0.001 s−1 up to 1000 s−1 and test temperatures from −196 °C up to 55 °C. The results show that the compression stress rises significantly with increasing strain rate, however softening effects influence the strain hardening behavior. At low temperature the strain hardening increases due to deformation induced martensitic transformation. α′-martensite was measured up to a volume fraction of 20%. In addition, Kocks–Mecking plots were generated, declaring the stages III, IV and V for different deformation mechanisms. θ0IV is influenced by the test temperature. Stage IV becomes smaller with increasing strain rate which indicates that the evolution of substructure takes part over a smaller range of stress.