Effects of initial grain size and strain on grain boundary engineering of high-nitrogen CrMn austenitic stainless steel

18Mn18Cr0.5N steel with an initial grain size of 28–177 μm was processed by 2.5%–20% cold rolling and annealing at 1000°C for 24 h, and the grain boundary character distribution was examined via electron backscatter diffraction. Low strain (2.5%) favored the formation of low-Σ boundaries. At this strain, the fraction of low-Σ boundaries was insensitive to the initial grain size. However, specimens with fine initial grains showed decreasing grain size after grain boundary engineering processing. The fraction of low-Σ boundaries and the (Σ9 + Σ27)/Σ3 value decreased with increasing strain; furthermore, the specimens with fine initial grain size were sensitive to the strain. Finally, the effects of the initial grain size and strain on the grain boundary engineering were discussed in detail.