Improving intergranular corrosion resistance in a nickel free and manganese bearing high nitrogen austenitic stainless steel through grain boundary character distribution optimization
Abstract Grain boundary character distribution (GBCD) and the effect of GBCD optimization on the intergranular corrosion (IGC) of a cold rolled and subsequently annealed nickel free and manganese bearing high nitrogen austenitic stainless steel were investigated. The results show that the fraction of low S coincidence site lattice boundaries increases from 47.3% for the solid solution treated specimen to 83.3% for the specimen cold rolled by 7% and then annealed at 1423 K for 10 min. S3 boundaries of high fraction effectively interrupt the connectivity of non corrosion resisting boundaries (special boundaries like S9, S27, etc. and general high angle boundaries) network, thus improving the IGC resistance.