Combination of High Yield Strength and Improved Ductility of 21Cr Lean Duplex Stainless Steel by Tailoring Cold Deformation and Low-Temperature Short-Term Aging

Proper matching of cold-rolled deformation and low-temperature short-term aging can simultaneously enhance the strength and ductility of the lean duplex stainless steel. To investigate this, the microstructure evolution of cold-rolled and aging steels was observed by using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and electron backscattered diffraction. Additionally, the phase volume fraction was measured using X-ray diffraction. In this study, it was observed that the elongation of 21Cr lean duplex stainless steel significantly increased to 16.7% after undergoing moderate cold deformation (~ 40% reduction) and subsequent aging treatment at 550 °C for 30 min. Remarkably, the material still maintained a high yield strength of 1045 MPa. Such an excellent mechanical property was attributed to a unique microstructure combination of fine α'-martensite, twins, coarsened austenite resulting from partial martensite reverse transformation, and two-phase fine layered structure. The result of this study may open up new horizons for the alloy development in order to overcome the low ductility of cold-rolled high-strength lean duplex stainless steel.