STRUCTURAL INHOMOGENEITIES IN PLASTICALLY DEFORMED FERRITIC STAINLESS STEEL.

Structural variations during cold working have been investigated in ferritic stainless steels. It is shown that the structure after deformation depends strongly on the crystallographic orientation of the grains. In grains with LT AN BR 100 RT AN BR 501 TD orientation uniform dislocation distribution was observed. The typical structure of heavily deformed ferrite consists of bands of increased dislocation density usually parallel to left brace 110 right brace , planes, but sometimes to left brace 211 right brace or left brace 321 right brace planes. Frequently, these bands are intersected by microbands. Transition and shear bands have often been observed. Transition bands are the boundaries between two deformation bands. Across a transition band the crystallographic orientation varies continuously from one deformation band to another. Bands of increased dislocation density developed in adjacent deformation bands have different orientations and they interpenetrate each other in the transition bands. No transition bands consisting of long, parallel cells as the generally accepted model of transition band formation demands have been observed.