The stacking-fault energy of the stainless steel was measured using weak-beam dark-field studies of extended nodes. The stacking-fault energy was 40mJ/m2. This was well below the 104mJ/m2 which was predicted for this composition by Schramm and Reed. Difficulties with their linear composition approach to stacking-fault energy were identified, and a representation of the energy using the Fe-Cr-Ni ternary diagram was suggested to provide a more realistic flexible and accurate picture of the compositional dependence.

The Composition Dependence of Stacking Fault Energy in Austenitic Stainless Steels. C.G.Rhodes, A.W.Thompson: Metallurgical Transactions A, 1977, 8[12], 1901-6