Strain induced martensitic transformation of Fe–20Cr–5Mn–0.2Ni duplex stainless steel during cold rolling: Effects of nitrogen addition

The effects of nitrogen addition on the strain induced martensitic transformation (SIMT) behavior of duplex stainless steel (D-STS) with the low nickel content were examined in a wide range of strain by means of cold rolling. Nitrogen of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 wt.% was added into Fe–20Cr–5Mn–0.2Ni D-STS (in wt.%) and cold rolling was conducted up to the effective strain of ∼1.45 after annealing at 1000 °C for 30 min. In the as-annealed state, the austenite fraction increased with increasing the N content. Regardless of the N content, the ferrite grain size was coarser than that of austenite. The stacking fault energy of austenite of the present D-STSs inferred by the element partitioning analysis was low enough so that SIM transformation is available. Accordingly, during cold rolling, SIMT occurred in austenite with a sequential manner of austenite → ɛ martensite → α′ martensite with increasing strain. By contrast, the deformed microstructure of ferrite was dominated by dislocation cells. The SIM fraction, which was normalized with reference to the initial austenite fraction in order to eliminate its effect, increased with increasing the N content. Along with the present results, the factors influencing the SIMT kinetics in the present D-STSs with the different N content were discussed.