Magnetic characterisation of duplex stainless steel

Heat treatment-induced microstructural processes were studied by different non-destructive magnetic and mechanical material testing methods in the present work. A commercial SAF 2507 type superduplex stainless steel was investigated. This alloy contains about 40% metastable ferrite which can decompose to a sigma phase and secondary austenite due to heat treatment. All the mechanical, corrosion resistance and magnetic properties are strongly influenced by this microstructural changes. This study had two aims: to understand better the kinetics of the ferrite decomposition process and to study the application possibilities of the applied magnetic measurements. This paper presents an application possibility of the nonlinear harmonics analysis measurement and demonstrates the possibility to find a quantitative correlation between measured harmonics and mechanical properties obtained from destructive tests.