TRIP aided deformation of a near-Ni-free, Mn–N bearing duplex stainless steel

Highlights: ► Development of a lean alloyed (near-Ni-free) TRIP aided duplex STS. ► In situ characterization of SIM transformation with strain at the same area of the sample. ► The KAM distribution evolution of the constituent phases with strain. - Abstract: A near-Ni-free, Mn–N bearing duplex stainless steel (D-SS) that shows transformation induced plasticity was developed. The present D-SS exhibited an excellent strength–ductility combination over 1000 MPa tensile strength and 50% elongation. An analysis of the element partitioning during annealing revealed that the stacking fault energy of austenite was low enough for a strain induced martensite (SIM) transformation to occur. The strain hardening rate began to increase at ∼10% strain with the same manner of SIM fraction. The TEM and EBSD analyses showed that not only the ε martensite band intersections but the austenite grain boundaries acted as the SIM nucleation sites. The SIM transformation was saturated because of the austenite grain refinement and the corresponding austenite stabilization. The austenite grain refinement was caused by the mutual impingement of growing SIM and as a result by the engulfment of remaining austenite by SIM. The deformation behavior of the present D-SS was characterized by analyzing the kernel average misorientation (KAM) of the constituent phases with strain. The KAM distribution of austenite, ferrite and SIM exhibited different characteristics. The average KAM of austenite and ferrite increased as the strain increased, but its increasing rate of austenite was higher than that of ferrite. These KAM characteristics were discussed along with the dislocation glide modes of austenite and ferrite. By contrast, the average KAM of SIM was insensitive to strain and higher than that of the other two phases.