In order to investigate the interrelationship between grain size, cell size, cell wall thickness and flow stress in type-316L stainless steel, tensile specimens with grain sizes of 3.1 to 86.7μm were deformed to a strain of 0.34 at 297, 673 or 973K using a strain rate of 10-4/s. The cell-wall thickness was found to be larger than the cell interior size, but they were mutually related and decreased only marginally with increasing grain size. The differences in the dislocation distributions and cell structures in the vicinity of grain boundaries and in the grain interior led to a variation in their relative contributions to strengthening. The smaller cell interior sizes and thicker cell walls resulted in a greater contribution of grain interiors to the strengthening of polycrystalline material than that of grain boundaries; with the maximum effect being observed at 673K, due to dynamic strain aging.

Towards the Interrelationship of Grain Size, Cell Parameters and Flow Stress in Type-316L Stainless Steel. B.P.Kashyap: Acta Materialia, 2002, 50[9], 2413-27