The Influence of Sample Preparation on the Quantitative Analysis of the Volume Fraction of Martensite Formed in a 304L Trip Steel

The metastable 304L austenitic stainless steels are susceptible to phase transformation induced by plastic deformation. The traditional metallographic preparation, via mechanical methods, introduces superficial plastic deformation from grinding and polishing. It is important to evaluate this effect on the results of quantitative analysis of martensite formed in 304L steels and similar alloys. In this work, phase transformation was induced by a tensile test at room temperature with two different plastic deformation rates in order to provide distinct structural conditions for the proposed analysis. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Ferritescopy were used to determine the volume fraction of martensite in samples with and without metallographic preparation. The results show that the analyses quantitative were not affected by metallographic preparation.