Annealing effects on the microstructure and magnetic domain structures of duplex stainless steel studied by in situ technique

The effects of annealing temperature on the microstructure and the magnetic domain structures of duplex stainless steel 2507 were investigated by the magnetic force microscopy (MFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD). The MFM and XRD results indicated that the volume fraction of ferrite phase increased with increasing annealing temperature, but the lattice constants kept constant. Moreover, with the rise of annealing temperature, the magnetic domain structure in the ferrite phase varied gradually, where the magnetic domain became thinner and the distribution turned more homogeneous. These results gave a direct evidence for the changes of microstructure and magnetic domain structure induced by the annealing treatment. EBSD analysis showed that the orientation of ferrite grains changed after annealing treatments, which coincided with the changes of the microstructure and the magnetic domain structures.