The Strain Dependence of Post-Deformation Softening during the Hot Compression of 304H Stainless Steel

Experiments were carried out in which the dependence of the fractional softening on temperature, time and strain rate was determined in a 304H stainless steel. Three prestrain ranges were identified pertaining to three different post-deformation softening behaviors: 1) prestraining to below the DRX critical strain: strongly strain dependent softening by SRX alone with softening kinetics controlled by growth rate of the nuclei; 2) prestraining to above the DRX critical strain: SRX + MDRX softening with weaker strain dependence of the kinetics but still controlled by grain growth; 3) at a prestrain of ε* and beyond: nucleation-controlled MDRX softening with the full inhibition of SRX. The transition prestrain ε* can exceed the peak strain if the DRX grain refinement ratio g = D0/DDRX > 4. The transition to MDRX-dominated softening can be attributed to a constant value of the normalized strain hardening rate independent of the preloading temperature and strain rate. The softening data from the compression tests show that at ε*, the time for half softening t50 exhibits a minimum. These data differ somewhat from observations obtained in the torsion testing of solid bars, in which no strain dependence of t50 was detected at ε* and beyond. Whether or not the strain dependence of t50 vanishes in the MDRX range is sensitive to the test method employed to study the post-deformation softening.