Martensite transformation of ultrafine grained austenite in Fe-28.5at%Ni alloy

Martensite transformation of the ultrafine grained (UFG) austenite fabricated by the accumulative roll bonding (ARB) process was studied. The Fe-28.5at.%Ni alloy sheet was severely deformed in austenite state by the ARB process up to 5 cycles. The ARB processed sheet had the ultrafine lamellar boundary structure. The mean lamellar spacing was 230 nm in the 5 cycles specimen. The sheets ARB processed by various cycles were cooled down to 77 K to cause the martensite transformation. Martensite transformation starting (Ms) temperature decreased with increasing the number of the ARB process. The Ms temperature of the ultrafine lamellar austenite in the 5 cycles specimen was 225 K, which was lower than that (247 K) of the conventionally recrystallized specimen with mean grain size of 22 mu m. The martensite having characteristic morphologies appeared from the UFG austenite, although the martensite transformed from the coarse-grained specimen showed typical plate (or lenticular) morphology. The strength of the nano-martensite transformed from the UFG austenite was about 1.5 times higher than that of the UFG austenite, and it reached to 970 MPa.