Mechanical, structural and tribological properties of superaustenitic stainless steel submitted at solution heat treatment

The superaustenitic stainless steel presents several technological applications, mainly in corrosive environments. The different phase precipitation might alter some of its mechanical properties. Such alterations affect several factors, including the working life of the material under adverse working conditions. In this study, Instrumented Indentation techniques, Tribology and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to evaluate alterations in regions close to the surface. The parameters analyzed were: hardness and elastic modulus (instrumented indentation), friction coefficient (tribology) and structural alterations of the unit cell of the identified phases (XRD - Rietveld Refinement). All properties analyzed were compared with those of common austenitic steel. The presence of σ-phase (space group P42mnm) and γ-austenite (space group Fm3m) were detected. Data analyzed indicated that the presence of σ-phase caused small alteration in properties such as hardness in regions close to the surface. In the regions farther from the surface (material bulk) data can be compared to that of conventional austenitic steel