Optimal chemical composition of Fe-Cr-Ni alloys for ultra grain refining by reversion of deformation-induced martensite

A thermo-mechanical treatment using reversion from deformation-induced martensite to austenite was suggested to obtain ultra-fine grain structures in metastable austenitic stainless steels. And, in order to determine steel composition suitable for the thermo-mechanical treatment, the influence of the Cr and Ni content on deformation-induced transformation from metastable austenite to martensite and successive reversion to austenite was investigated for low carbon Fe-Cr-Ni ternary alloys by means of magnetic analysis. The results are reported. For the Fe-Cr-Ni ternary allows which satisfy certain conditions of composition, we can obtain an almost single structure of reversed austenite by the above thermo-mechanical treatment.