Plastic accommodation at homophase interfaces between nanotwinned and recrystallized grains in an austenitic duplex-microstructured steel

The plastic co-deformation behavior at the homophase interfaces between the hard nanotwinned grain inclusions and the soft recrystallized matrix grains in a duplex-microstructured AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel is examined through the analysis of long-range orientation gradients within the matrix grains by electron backscatter diffraction and transmission electron microcopy. Our analysis reveals that the mechanical accommodation of homophase interfaces until a macroscopic strain of 22% is realized within a small area of soft grains (about four grains) adjacent to the homophase interface. The activation of deformation twinning in the first two grain layers results in the occurrence of a ‘hump’ in the orientation gradient profile. We ascribe this effect to the role of deformation twinning on the generation of geometrically necessary dislocations. The smooth profile of the orientation gradient amplitude within the first 10 grain layers indicates a gradual plastic accommodation of the homophase interfaces upon straining. As a consequence, damage nucleation at such interfaces is impeded, resulting in an enhanced ductility of the single phase duplex-microstructured steel.