High spatial resolution strain measurements at the surface of duplex stainless steels

The determination of local strain fields at the Surface of materials is of major importance for understanding their reactivity. In the present paper, lithography is used to fabricate grid points at the microscale and to map strain gradients within grains and between grains. This method was applied to duplex stainless steels which exhibit heterogeneous strain distributions under straining conditions. The influence of various parameters (the specimen microstructure, the density of slip bands, the number of systems activated and the grid geometry) on the strain value is discussed.