Evaluation and characterisation of ASS316L at sub-zero temperature

ABSTRACT

Austenitic Stainless-Steel grade 316L is one among the significant ASS grades which is most used in various industry sectors. It has excellent corrosion resistance in ordinary atmospheric and in more arduous environments such as saltwater. Whilst performing well when exposed to relatively high temperatures, this grade of ASS also maintains its strength and toughness at sub-zero temperatures, making this an excellent choice for various applications in industrial sectors such as Marine, general construction and water treatment. Therefore, present study focused on evaluating the mechanical properties, ultimate tensile strength (UTS), yield strength (YS) and strain hardening exponent (n) are evaluated based on the experimental data obtained from the uniaxial isothermal tensile tests performed at an interval of −25°C from 0°C to −50°C and at three orientations 0, 45, 90 degrees to the rolling direction and cross-head velocity 3, 5, 7 mm/min were chosen. Total of 27 experiments have been planned based on design-of-experiments. A mathematical model for the prediction of UTS, YS and n was developed using process parameters such as temperature, orientation and cross-head velocities. Results have shown that mechanical properties can be predicted with a reasonable accuracy within the range of process parameters considered in this study.

KEYWORDS:

• Ultimate tensile strength
• yield strength
• strain hardening exponent
• AS316L
• mathematical model

Nomenclature

UTS	=	Ultimate tensile strength
LNG	=	Liquefied natural gas
YS	=	Yield strength
n	=	Strain hardening exponent
UTM	=	Universal testing machine
% C	=	Percentage contribution
DF	=	Degree of freedom
EDM	=	Electric discharge machine
SS	=	Sum of square
ANOVA	=	Analysis of variance
A	=	Temperature
B	=	Orientation
C	=	Velocity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the All India Council for Technical Education [8-52/RIFD/RPS/POLICY-1/2016-17];Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology [SR/FST/college-029/2017]