A comprehensive study on the effect of high-temperature deformation level on microstructure development of austenitic stainless steel

Austenitic stainless steel has been deformed to different strain levels at high temperatures and electron back-scattered diffraction has been done at the centre of the deformed samples to study the microstructure. A low strain of 0.22 develops deformation substructures and does not contribute much to the change in microstructure. An increase in strain value develops equiaxed grains and at 900 degrees C, a necklace-type structure is observed. A decrease in average grain size with increased strain level is observed (except at 1200 degrees C). A high fraction of high-angle grain boundaries with a significant fraction of Sigma 3 boundaries is observed at high temperatures and high-strain levels. The texture intensity showed the formation of strong [101] and [001] fibres. However, the intensity distribution between [101] and [001] varies with strain level and deformation temperature. Finally, discussions on the effect of high-temperature deformation on microstructure and texture development have been presented.