Optimizing strength and ductility of austenitic stainless steels through equal-channel angular pressing and adding nitrogen element

Two austenitic stainless steels were processed by equal-channel angular pressing to systematically investigate the influences of alloying nitrogen and severe plastic deformation on the strength and ductility. With increasing the number of ECAP pass and adding nitrogen element, the density of deformation twins increased. It is shown that the two steels exhibit a similar general trend that the strength increases and the ductility decreases with increasing the deformation strain, but an enhanced strength-ductility synergy can be achieved by adding nitrogen element. (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.