Influence of Cold-Worked Structure on Electrochemical Properties of Austenitic Stainless Steels

The effect of cold working on microstructure and structure and thereby on electrochemical behavior of metastable AISI 304L and stable AISI 316L austenitic stainless steels in two different solutions is presented here. The solution-annealed stainless steel (SS) plates were unidirectionally cold rolled at different rolling conditions (with or without interpass cooling and subzero temperature) up to 90 pct reduction in thickness. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique was employed to study textures and residual stress development in the stainless steels due to cold working and to quantify the volume fraction of α′-martensite phase formed in the metastable SS. Cold working introduced residual stress and developed texture in both stainless steels. The residual stress and volume fraction of strain-induced α′- martensite phase in 304L SS was varied with the rolling conditions. The study has shown that the type of textures developed in the two stainless steels influenced their electrochemical properties.