State of Grain Boundary Misorientation Due to Multiaxiality in Austenitic Stainless Steel

Electron backscatter diffraction was used to study grain character under multiaxiality. Nonproportional loading conditions employing a triangular and sinusoidal wavepath resulted in higher low-angle grain boundaries in austenitic stainless steel. Contrastingly, significant martensitic transformation resulted from nonproportional cycling for the trapezoidal path, leading to increased medium-angle grain boundaries. For proportional loading, high-angle grain boundaries were dominant, owing to participation of limited grains in the deformation process. All results were substantiated through electron microscopy.