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Team 6

Team Members

Faculty Advisor

Ryan Gordon
Gavin Foley
Peiyuan Zhang
Sana Qureshi

Dr. Mark Aindow

Sponsor

Ulbrich Stainless Steels & Specialty Metals

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High Temperature Strain ageing of Cold Worked austenitic Stainless Steel

301 stainless steel is a commonly used steel alloy belonging to the 300-series of stainless steel alloys, being the alloy with the lowest amount of nickel content. This project involved the strain ageing and mechanical treatment of a 301 stainless steel strip, turned into dog-bones for mechanical testing. The primary objective of this research project was to increase the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of the 301 stainless steel strip samples by 10-15 ksi, which would be tested via tensile testing or 3-point bending. 301 stainless steel strip samples were procured from Ulbrich, which had been cold worked on site at the Ulbrich Specialty Strip Mill. For testing, a time series and a temperature series have been created to research the effects of heat treatment on the 301 stainless steel samples post-rolling. To characterize the microstructural changes that will be present in the 301 stainless steel as a result of testing, multiple analytical techniques will be employed. These include scanning electron microscopy to analyze fracture mechanics, optical microscopy to observe phase content and surface morphology, electron backscatter diffraction to analyze grain orientation, and a Feritscope to determine the phase content of the steel. Thorough literature analysis on the cold working of stainless steel under similar test conditions has provided great insight regarding anticipated material changes of the 301 stainless steel samples. It is anticipated that the goal of an ultimate tensile strength increase of 10-15 ksi will not only be met but will be exceeded as a result of this research.