Abstract

The effects of temperature and time of aging on ductile fracture were investigated in austenitic stainless steel with few inclusions. From cylindrical tensile data and stereological correlations, a mechanism of void formation is proposed. Two stages can be envisaged for the mechanism of voiding: (1) a homogeneous nucleation process is aided by the vacancies generated by dislocation interaction. (2) limited vacancy-cluster coalescence process can be developed, from the excess vacancies preserved by quench, which annihilate at the voids lead ing to the growing of them. Longer or increased times and high er temperatures produced smaller dimple sizes, being this effect accompanied by the progressive reduction in yield strength and an increased value of ductility and surface relief.