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Directed energy deposited (DED) and forged austenitic stainless steels possess dissimilar microstructures but can exhibit similar mechanical properties. In this study, annealing was used to evolve the microstructure of both conventional wrought and DED type 304L austenitic stainless steels, and significant differences were observed. In particular, the density of geometrically necessary dislocations and hardness were used to probe the evolution of the microstructure and properties. Forged type 304L exhibited the expected decrease in measured dislocation density and hardness as a function of annealing temperature. The more complex microstructure–property relationship observed in the DED type 304L material is attributed to compositional heterogeneities in the solidification microstructure.

This study utilized high energy synchrotron x-ray diffraction to probe microstructural evolution during uniaxial deformation of conventionally manufactured and additively manufactured (AM) 304L stainless steel with and without internal hydrogen. The objective of this effort is to highlight the effect of hydrogen on deformation-induced martensite phase transformations in austenitic stainless steels. Solute hydrogen depresses the required applied strain to initiate austenite transformation to ε-martensite and α’-martensite in both forged and AM stainless steel. Similarly, the total fraction of transformation product is larger when the microstructure is saturated with hydrogen. Deformation induced phase transformations also lead to a variation in strain partitioning behavior, which is linked to the chemical composition and stacking fault energy of the starting and hydrogen-charged materials.

Threshold stress intensity factors were measured in high-pressure hydrogen gas for a variety of low alloy ferritic steels using both constant crack opening displacement and rising crack opening displacement procedures. Thresholds for crack extension under rising displacement, K THi , for crack extension under constant displacement, , and for crack arrest under constant displacement K THa , were identified. These values were not found to be equivalent, i.e. K THi  <  K THa  <  . The hydrogen assisted fracture mechanism was determined to be strain controlled for all of the alloys in this study, and the micromechanics of strain controlled fracture are used to explain the observed disparities between the different threshold measurements. K THa and K THi differ because the strain singularity of a stationary crack is stronger than that of a propagating crack; K THa must be larger than K THi to achieve equivalent crack tip strain at the same distance from the crack tip. Hydrogen interacts with deformation mechanisms, enhancing strain localization and consequently altering both the nucleation and growth stages of strain controlled fracture mechanisms. The timing of load application and hydrogen exposure, i.e. , sequential for constant displacement tests and concurrent for rising displacement tests, leads to differences in the strain history relative to the environmental exposure history and promotes the disparity between and K THi . K THi is the only conservative measurement of fracture threshold among the methods presented here.

Austenitic stainless steel microstructures produced by directed energy deposition (DED) are analogous to those developed during welding, particularly high energy density welding. To better understand microstructural development during DED, theories of microstructural evolution, which have been established to contextualize weld microstructures, are applied in this study to microstructural development in DED austenitic stainless steels. Phenomenological welding models that describe the development of oxide inclusions, compositional microsegregation, ferrite, matrix austenite grains, and dislocation substructures are utilized to clarify microstructural evolution during deposition of austenitic stainless steels. Two different alloys, 304L and 316L, are compared to demonstrate the broad applicability of this framework for understanding microstructural development during the DED process. Despite differences in grain morphology and solidification mode for these two alloys (which can be attributed to compositional differences), similar tensile properties are achieved. It is the fine-scale compositional segregation and dislocation structures that ultimately determine the strength of these materials. The evolution of microsegregation and dislocation structures is shown to be dependent on the rapid solidification and thermomechanical history of the DED processing method and not the composition of the starting material.

The objective of this study was to evaluate effects of low temperature on hydrogen-assisted crack propagation in forged 304L austenitic stainless steel. Fracture initiation toughness and crack-growth resistance curves were measured using fracture mechanics specimens that were thermally precharged with 140 wppm hydrogen and tested at 293 K or 223 K (20 °C or −50 °C). Fracture initiation toughness for hydrogen-precharged forgings decreased by at least 50 to 80 pct relative to non-charged forgings. With hydrogen, low-temperature fracture initiation toughness decreased by 35 to 50 pct relative to room-temperature toughness. Crack growth without hydrogen at both temperatures was microstructure-independent and indistinguishable from blunting, while with hydrogen microcracks formed by growth and coalescence of microvoids. Initiation of microvoids in the presence of hydrogen occurred where localized deformation bands intersected grain boundaries and other deformation bands. Low temperature additionally promoted fracture initiation at annealing twin boundaries in the presence of hydrogen, which competed with deformation band intersections and grain boundaries as sites of microvoid formation and fracture initiation. A common ingredient for fracture initiation was stress concentration that arose from the intersection of deformation bands with these microstructural obstacles. The localized deformation responsible for producing stress concentrations at obstacles was intensified by low temperature and hydrogen. Crack orientation and forging strength were found to have a minor effect on fracture initiation toughness of hydrogen-supersaturated 304L forgings.