Elevated temperature material characteristics of AISI 304L stainless steel

This paper presents newly obtained mechanical response data for AISI 304L stainless steel at high temperatures. These data are necessary for performing thermo-structural analysis of heating processes. Applications include manufacturing processes such as welding where previously assumptions about the material response had to be made due to a lack of published material data. The results presented here were obtained from compression tests using a Gleeble 3500 test machine at temperatures ranging from 293K (20 degrees C) to 1,500K (1,227 degrees C) with low strain rates. Elevated temperature true stress-strain curves are provided with proposed coinciding bilinear response models. Dynamic recrystallisation at high temperatures was observed but is expected to have negligible effects on the mechanical behaviour for small deformations. Ferritescope readings were obtained from the samples both before and after the heated compression tests to assess the possibility of phase transformations.