Thermomechanical behaviour of AISI 304 steels

The hot deformation behaviour of three AISI 304 (H, L and lip) austenitic s tainless steel with difficult carbon contents has been studied. An analysis of the parameters describing their hot flow curves was carried out. No hea vy effect of the carbon content was found on most of the latter parameters. However, the work hardening and dynamic recovery behaviour showed clear di fferences depending on the given alloy, especially at high temperatures and low strain rates where the high carbon steel displayed larger work hardeni ng and dynamic recovery rates than the other steels. The high purity steel (interstitial free) displayed the lower stress levels as its hardening rate was slower than in the other two steels.