Microstructural Features and Ductile-Brittle Transition Behavior in Hot-Rolled Lean Duplex Stainless Steels

The characteristics of texture and microstructure of lean duplex stainless steels with low Ni content produced through hot rolling followed by annealing were investigated locally with electron backscatter diffraction and globally with neutron diffraction. Then, the ductile-brittle transition (DBT) behavior was studied by Charpy impact test. It is found that the DBT temperature (DBTT) is strongly affected by the direction of crack propagation, depending on crystallographic texture and microstructural morphology; the DBTT becomes extremely low in the case of fracture accompanying delamination. A high Ni duplex stainless steel examined for comparison, shows a lower DBTT compared with the lean steel in the same crack propagating direction. The obtained results were also discussed through comparing with those of cast duplex stainless steels reported previously (Takahashi et al., Tetsu-to-Hagane, 100(2014), 1150).