Numerical analysis of constrained groove pressing and mechanical behaviour of processed 316l stainless steel

Among several existing and well established severe plastic deformation techniques, constrained groove pressing (CGP) is one of the prominent and trusted routes for producing ultrafine grained materials. In the present work medical grade 316L austenitic stainless steel sheet of 3 mm thickness was subjected to CGP up to two cycles. Samples obtained as a result of processing were investigated both experimentally and numerically through finite element (FE) analysis using DEFORM-3D software. XRD study revealed the transformation of austenitic phase to martensitic phase. Tensile and hardness tests were conducted to see the effect of processing on mechcanical properties. The ultimate tensile strength increases with the number of CGP passes from 767 (solution annealed) to 1162 MPa (after 2 cycles), similarly, yield strength increases from 269 (as received) to 328 MPa (after 2 cycles). Finite element analysis showed an imposed strain of 2.30 with standard deviation of 0.31 after two cycle of CGP is in coordination with experimental measured strain of 2.32.