Austenitic Stainless Steels from Quantum Mechanical Calculations

Quantum mechanics is used to study the influence of the chemical composition on the elastic properties of austenitic stainless steels. Fe based alloys comprising approximately 15% Cr and 8% Ni are predicted to have the largest hardness among the usual austenitic steels, which, however, is associated with increased brittleness and susceptibility to various forms of localized corrosion. It is shown that few percent of additional Os or Ir to Fe15Cr8Ni alloy significantly improve on both of these shortcomings, without deteriorating the hardness.