Mechanical Behaviour of Austenitic Stainless Steels

Dear Colleagues,

Stainless steels were discovered more than a century ago. They are high-alloy steels that have a more superior corrosion resistance than other steels, because they contain large amounts of chromium. During 2017, 48 million metric tons of stainless steel were produced, and the average yearly growth of the 30 years is an impressive 6%. Around 75% of these tons are of austenitic grades, which are the most common types of stainless steel. This is because of their excellent corrosion and heat resistance, combined with their good mechanical properties over a wide range of temperatures.

Concerning their mechanical properties, the austenitic crystals are face-centered cubic, which makes them very tough and ductile, and also very versatile, because they can be soft enough (with a yield strength about 200 MPa) to be easily formed, but they can also be made very strong by cold work (up to yield strengths over 2.000 MPa). Their engineering scale response to mechanical loading, both during processing and in service, is highly dependent on their crystallographic texture and on microstructural features, particularly martensitic induced transformation. Nowadays, thanks to advanced characterization tools such as FIB, EBSD, and nano-indentation, a deeper insight into the micro-mechanisms that determine the mechanical behavior is possible.

In this Special Issue, an open-access forum is provided for publishing original papers that investigate various aspects of the mechanical behaviour of austenitic stainless steels, including both research and review papers, informing readers about the latest ongoing research and development activities, from prior history to the current state-of-the art.

The Special Issue will include (but will not be limited to) the following topics:

the influence of crystallographic texture on fracture and fatigue behavior, austenite to martensite transformation, local plasticity and deformation mechanisms.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Mateo
Dr. Gemma Fargas
Guest Editors

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