Dislocation densities and intergranular stresses of plastically deformed austenitic steels

Heterogeneous plastic deformation behavior of < hkl > oriented individual grains-family with respect to the tensile direction in austenitic steels was studied using electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD) and neutron diffraction (ND) measurements. The kernel averaged misorientation value determined by EBSD for a plastically deformed specimen was different in grain to grain, suggesting different dislocation densities. Such insights obtained from the surface observations with EBSD were quantitatively evaluated as bulk-averaged data using ND. The convolutional multiple whole profile fitting (CMWP) for ND profiles has revealed different dislocation densities in < hkl > oriented grains-families, showing good coincidence with the EBSD results in trend.