Abstract

Microstructure evolution has been studied by multi-heat forging experiments and numerical simulation in order to determine the reasonable forging technology of 316 LN steel. The microstructure evolution models were obtained by hot compressive tests and heat treatment tests of 316 LN steels. The one-heat and three-heat upsetting experiments were carried on. Meanwhile, the corresponding numerical simulations were performed. The results show that, the grain uniformity of three-heat upsetting is much better that of one-heat upsetting. The average grain size of three-heat upsetting is smaller than that of one-heat upsetting. So, the forging technology of multi-heat and little deformation should be adopted for 316 LN steel forging. By comparing experimental average grain sizes with simulated average grain sizes for three-heat upsetting, it is found that the simulated values are in agreement with experimental values, which shows that the numerical simulation can be employed to predict the forging microstructure evolution of 316 LN steel.

Keywords:

316 LN, microstructure evolution, multi-heat forging, numerical simulation, re-crystallization,

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Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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