Transmission of plasticity through grain boundaries in a metastable austenitic stainless steel

Austenitic metastable stainless steels have outstanding mechanical properties. Their mechanical behavior comes from the combination of different deformation mechanisms, including phase transformation. The present work aims to investigate the main deformation mechanisms through the grain boundary under monotonic and cyclic tests at the micro- and sub-micrometric length scales by using the nanoindentation technique. Within this context, this topic is relevant as damage evolution at grain boundaries is controlled by slip transfer, and the slip band-grain boundary intersections are preferred crack nucleation sites. Furthermore, in the case of metastable stainless steels, the interaction between martensitic phase and grain boundaries may have important consequences.Postprint (published version