Effect of Plastic Deformation on Microstructure and Properties of 347 Austenite Steel.

A popular issue of recent scientific research is the surface modification induced by plastic deformation, such as ultrasonic shot peening (USP) on workpiece surface. USP is an efficient way to improve the mechanical behavior of specimens by inducing severe plastic deformation on their surface. Nevertheless, this surface treatment induced complex microstructural evolutions, such as grain refinement and phase transformation. In this work, the microstructure and properties of 347 austenite steel samples before and after USP for 5, 10, and 15 min treatments have been investigated. The affected layers show a significant hardness increase (~450 m in depth) on the USP treated surface, and the 10 min USP treated specimen shows the best corrosion resistance in all tested specimens. The magnetic properties and microstructures of the tested specimens show gradient evolution during deformation.