Mechanical characterization of microconstituents in a cast duplex stainless steel by micropillar compression

The mechanical properties of individual constituent in a cast austenitic–ferritic stainless steel were studied using uniaxial micropillar compression tests. The results of compression tests of the micropillars with the diameter ranging from 1 to 5 and 1 to 10 µm for ferrite and austenite, respectively, reveal that the strength of both austenite and ferrite increases with a decrease in sample size. The compression results also confirm that the strength of ferrite phase is higher than the austenite. The average yield stress value of ferrite is approximately 200 MPa higher than that of the austenite phase with the same sample size. The critical resolved shear stress (CRSS) was also calculated based on pillar compression and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) results.