Inter‐Pass Softening Behavior of Fe–16Cr–xMn–4Ni–0.05C–0.17N Steel

The paper investigates the inter‐pass softening kinetics of 4 nitrogen‐alloyed low‐nickel austenitic stainless steels with various Mn‐content by double hit compression tests. These tests are carried out in a Gleeble HDS V40 at three temperatures 970, 1050, 1150 °C and at three strain rates 0.1, 1, 10 s⁻¹ and at three logarithmic pre‐strains 0.15, 0.3, 0.6. Inter‐pass softening ratio is evaluated by the 2% offset method and are further described by the Avrami equation, which includes the material constants as a linear function of the Mn content. Moreover, the mean recrystallized grain size after completed inter‐pass softening is modeled as function of process parameters and Mn contents. The results reveal that the inter‐pass softening kinetics slightly decelerates with increasing of the Mn content. The mean recrystallized grain size is marginally influenced by the Mn content.