Effect of annealing temperature on transformation induced plasticity effect of a lean duplex stainless steel

► A new lean duplex stainless steel associated with transformation induced plasticity effect was designed. ► The elongation increased with the annealing temperatures and reached the maximum of 61.2% after annealing at 1150 °C. ► A sequential γ → ε → α' martensite transformation was generated during tensile. ► The relationships of transformation induced plasticity effect with martensite transformation were studied upon TEM. ► The austenite to epsilon martensite transformation was important for transformation induced plasticity effect.