EBSD study of the hot deformation microstructure characteristics of a type 316L austenitic stainless steel

Crystallographic texture characteristics and deformation microstructure were studied in a type 316L austenitic stainless steel using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). It was shown that at lower strain level, there was a rotation of the pre-existing twin boundaries from the original orientation relationship, as well as the formation of highly distorted grain boundary regions and deformation bands. The misorientations were found to be small and displayed a non-cummulative character across the band widths. It was stated that the obtained statistically representative data would assist in the development of physically-based models of microstructural evolution during hot forming of similarly alloyed austenitic stainless steels.