Thermal stability of nanocrystalline surface layer of AISI 321 stainless steel

A nanocrystalline layer with an average grain size of 75 nm was formed on the top surface layer of 321 stainless steel (321SS) alloy via severe shot peening (SSP). Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GI-XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were applied to characterize the grain size changes, phase compositions and microstructure evolution after vacuum annealing at temperatures ranging from 200 °C to 1000 °C. The results revealed that...