Mechanical behaviour of 31 6L stainless steel under warm working conditions

Abstract

A rational description of the constitutive behaviour of 316L stainless steel deformed between 873 K and 1123 K, over a wide range of strain rates, is proposed. Such a description involves the use of the Sah et al. evolution law for the characterisation of change in flow stress, the strain applied and the interpolation of saturation stress at any temperature and strain rate from a matrix derived from experimental flow stress curves. In addition, the initial work hardening rate is assumed to be a constant, independent of deformation temperature and strain rate. It is shown that this simple constitutive description of the material is able to provide a satisfactory description of both the flow stress and work hardening rate under most deformation conditions. Results regarding the change in saturation stress with temperature and strain rate indicate that dynamic strain aging effects, associated with negative values of the strain rate sensitivity of the saturation stress, are present in the temperature range 873-1073 K and strain rates of the order 0.1 -10 s^-1.