Influence of severe plastic deformation obtained by warm rolling on microstructure and mechanical properties of the ferritic stainless steel

Generation IV reactors require research on new materials. For example, materials that will be used in the reactor vessel must be resistant to creep and have high toughness. Grain refining is a technique used to improve toughness. This grain refinement can be achieved by severe plastic deformation. In this work, the stainless steel 409 was used to simulate the EUROFER one type of ODS steel. The rolling process was applied to make the severe plastic deformation. The rolling was performed at 600°C which corresponds to the warm working condition in the absence of dynamic recrystallization. The rolling schedule studied allowed a logarithmic strain accumulation of 3.16. The rolled sheet had a yield stress of 822 MPa and a hardness of 302 HV. The grains became quite elongated characteristic of a severe plastic deformation. The recrystallization temperature of the rolled sheet was approximately 500°C. It was obtained by heat treatment and hardness measurement. (author)