Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Austenitic Stainless Steels: 2nd Edition

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Crystalline Metals and Alloys".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2025) | Viewed by 1093

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Interests: mechanical behaviors; microstructure characterization; deformation mechanisms; alloying design; microstructural control; structural materials for nuclear system
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Guest Editor
Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Interests: nanostructure; nanotwin; mechanical property; fatigue; cyclic deformation; deformation mechanism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Following the successful first edition of this Special Issue of Crystals, we are pleased to announce that submissions to its second edition, entitled “Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Austenitic Stainless Steels: 2nd Edition”, are now being accepted.

Austenitic stainless steels constitute about 70% of stainless steel production, and are widely used in many industrial fields (e.g., chemical, petrochemical, fertilizer, food, medical and nuclear) owing to their excellent corrosion resistance, superior mechanical properties and good workability. To meet the requirements of extreme operating environments such as cryogenic temperature, higher temperature, higher operating pressure, severe corrosive environment, radiation environment and longer lifetime, the continuing development of austenitic stainless steels is still underway. Currently, promising methods including novel alloying design, processing techniques and fabrication techniques are proposed to further improve the mechanical properties.

This Special Issue titled ”Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Austenitic Stainless Steels” aims to highlight recent progress in microstructural modification and mechanical properties improvement in austenitic stainless steels. The submitted contributions include but are not limited to the following topics:

  • Alloying design and microstructural control strategies for high-performance austenitic stainless steels;
  • Microstructure and mechanical properties of austenitic stainless steels prepared by novel fabrication process routes;
  • Two- and three-dimensional characterization of microstructural evolution under service-exposed conditions, including temperature, load, corrosive, radiation, etc.;
  • Insight into deformation mechanisms under service-exposed conditions;
  • Understanding mechanical properties degradation under service-exposed conditions;
  • Advances in the service life prediction evaluation of austenitic stainless steels.

Dr. Shenghu Chen
Dr. Qingsong Pan
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • austenitic stainless steel
  • microstructure characterization
  • mechanical properties
  • alloying design
  • microstructural control
  • novel fabrication process routes
  • microstructural evolution
  • deformation mechanism
  • service life prediction evaluation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 5701 KiB  
Article
Effect of Nickel Content and Cooling Rate on the Microstructure of as Cast 316 Stainless Steels
by Lei Chen, Yang Wang, Yafeng Li, Zhengrui Zhang, Zhixuan Xue, Xinyu Ban, Chaohui Hu, Haixiao Li, Jun Tian, Wangzhong Mu, Kun Yang and Chao Chen
Crystals 2025, 15(2), 168; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst15020168 - 10 Feb 2025
Viewed by 896
Abstract
To meet the requirement of low magnetic permeability, which, in turn, lowers the ferrite content of castings, of special interest is 316 stainless steel, whose low ferrite content renders it suitable also for nuclear power applications. Therefore, the effects of the composition and [...] Read more.
To meet the requirement of low magnetic permeability, which, in turn, lowers the ferrite content of castings, of special interest is 316 stainless steel, whose low ferrite content renders it suitable also for nuclear power applications. Therefore, the effects of the composition and cooling rate of 316 stainless steel castings on the ferrite content are investigated. Three 316 stainless steel continuous casting samples with different compositions (primarily differing in the Ni content) are studied, i.e., low-alloy type (L-316), medium-alloy type (M-316), and high-alloy type (H-316). The austenite-forming element nickel of three different industrial samples is 10%, 12%, and 14%, respectively. The effect of the cooling rate on the ferrite content and precipitation phases of the high Ni content of the 316 stainless steel casting (H-316) is studied by remelting experiments and different methods of quenching of liquid steel. In both cases, the ferrite content and the precipitate phases in the microstructure are analyzed using SEM and EBSD. The results indicate that compositional changes within the 316 stainless steel range lead to changes in the solidification mode. In the L-316 casting, solidified by the FA mode (ferrite–austenite mode), ferrite precipitates first from the liquid phase, followed by the formation of austenite, and the ferrite content is 11.2%. In contrast, the ferrite content in the M-316 and H-316 castings, solidified by the AF mode (austenite–ferrite mode), is 2.88% and 2.45%, respectively. The effect of the solidification mode on the ferrite content is more obvious than that of the composition. The microstructure of the L-316 casting is mainly composed of the austenitic phase and the ferritic phase. The microstructure of the M-316 casting is composed of austenite, ferrite, and a small amount of sigma phase, with a small amount of ferrite transformed into the sigma phase. The microstructure of the H-316 casting is basically composed of austenite and the sigma phase, with the ferrite has been completely transformed into sigma phase. Changes in composition have a greater influence on the precipitate phases, while the solidification mode has a lesser impact. In the remelting experiments, the ferrite content in the H-316 ingot obtained through furnace cooling and air cooling is 1.49% and 1.94%, respectively, and the cooling rates are 0.1 °C/s and 3.5 °C/s, respectively. Under oil- and water-cooling conditions, with cooling rates of 11.5 °C/s and 25.1 °C/s, respectively, the ferrite content in the ingot is controlled to below 1%. The effect of the cooling rate on the precipitation phase of the H-316L ingot is that the amount of precipitated phase in the ingot decreases with an increase in cooling rate, but, when the cooling rate exceeds a certain value (air cooling 3.5 °C/s), the change in cooling rate has little effect on the amount of the precipitated phase. Full article
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