Abstract In this work, the residual stress study by XRD was carried out after martensitic transformation of a 304L steel subjected to plastic strain by rolling and tensile test, at room and cryogenic temperatures. This article intents to contribute with the understanding of residual stresses generated by martensitic transformation induced by plastic deformation due to its complexity. From the experimental conditions employed, it was possible to obtain high martensite volumetric fraction and it was possible to observe the influence of existing phases on the performance of residual stress measurements. In general, compressive residual stress was observed for both austenite and martensite phases. The samples rolled at cryogenic temperature showed higher magnitudes of compressive stresses, between -123 and -231 MPa, for martensite volumes between 98 and 100%. It was also clearly displacement and widening of diffraction line due to the presence of residual macro and microstresses when compared to the as-received material.

RESUMO O aço inoxidável austenítico 304L é suscetível à transformação martensítica induzida por deformação. Esta transformação de fases depende da temperatura, assim como do modo, taxa e nível de deformação. Neste trabalho as fases e tensões residuais de um aço TRIP 304L, em que a transformação martensítica foi induzida por laminação a frio, foram investigadas por difração de raios-X (DRX). As análises foram realizadas em diferentes espessuras das amostras. Os resultados mostraram que a composição de fases e as tensões residuais são fortemente dependentes da espessura das amostras. Todas as amostras apresentaram tensão residual compressiva.

ABSTRACT The 304L austenitic stainless steel is susceptible to deformation induced martensitic transformation. This phase transformation depends on the temperature as well as on the mode, rate and level of deformation. In this work the phases and residual stresses of a 304L TRIP steel where martensitic transformation was induced by cold rolling were investigated by X-ray diffraction XRD. The analyses were performed for different sample thicknesses. The results showed that the phase composition and the residual stresses are strongly dependent on sample thickness. All samples showed a compressive residual stress.

The 304L austenitic stainless steel is susceptible to mechanically induced martensitic transformation from slightly above room temperature down to cryogenic temperatures. In this work, austenitic 304L steel produced by two different thermomechanical processes, hot rolling (HR) and cold rolling and annealing (CR/A), were subjected to martensitic transformation by rolling and by tensile tests at 298 K and 155 K and the volume fraction of martensite was determined by X-ray diffraction and ferritescope measurements. The results showed that the martensitic transformation was complete for CR/A samples rolled at 155 K and that the volume fraction of martensite was larger in CR/A samples than in HR samples in all cases.

The API 5L X70 steel is used in high-pressure gas transmission pipelines. Because of this, knowledge of presence of residual stress and their magnitude is important to assess the material integrity in service. For the pipeline manufacturing, tubes need to be curved which is often made using the hot induction bending process. This process can introduce different residual stress depending of tube position. For this research, in order to evaluate the residual stress, was used an API 5L X70 tube that was previously curved by hot induction process. Samples were taken from the extrados, intrados, neutral line and straight section of the curved tube. Residual stresses were studied by two conventional methods: X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Hole-Drilling, which are destructive and non-destructive methods, respectively, in order to assess their qualitative responses. Each of these methods presents particular methodologies in sample preparation and material analysis, but also they differ in factors such time consumption and cost of the analysis. The qualitative responses obtained by the two different methods were comparable and satisfactory and pointed out the existence of a compressive residual stress state in steel pipe.

The metastable 304L austenitic stainless steels are susceptible to phase transformation induced by plastic deformation. The traditional metallographic preparation, via mechanical methods, introduces superficial plastic deformation from grinding and polishing. It is important to evaluate this effect on the results of quantitative analysis of martensite formed in 304L steels and similar alloys. In this work, phase transformation was induced by a tensile test at room temperature with two different plastic deformation rates in order to provide distinct structural conditions for the proposed analysis. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Ferritescopy were used to determine the volume fraction of martensite in samples with and without metallographic preparation. The results show that the analyses quantitative were not affected by metallographic preparation.