Phase‐Separation Strengthening and Stress‐Relieving Heat Treatment of Duplex Stainless Steels

This article is on the feasibility of strengthening and stress‐relieving the 2205 duplex stainless steel (DSS) via short‐term annealing in the phase separation temperature range. Annealing at 500 °C for 5 h does not degrade appreciably the pitting resistance of the 2205 DSS in 3.5% NaCl up to at least 60 °C. The steel, however, is strengthened without a noticeable loss of ductility. The dry‐sliding tribological and fatigue behaviors are slightly improved, too. Hence, stress‐relieving treatment of DSSs is indeed feasible, with the attendant enhancement of mechanical properties. The equivalency of thermal annealing at different temperatures in the phase‐separation temperature range is demonstrated for slow strain rate tensile behavior, as well as for dry sliding tribological and cyclic potentiodynamic polarization behaviors.