On the influence of cold work on the oxidation of some stainless steels

Oxidation experiments, performed by means of light interference microscopy, give information of the initial oxidation on a microscopic scale. A thin oxide layer on the substrate gives rise to an interference colour, which is directly correlated to the thickness of this layer. It is shown that not all stainless steels react in the same way to the same pretreatments. The oxidation behaviour of drawn AlSI 304 and AlSI 321 is completely different from that of Incoloy 800 H, while the undeformed and recrystallized samples all show the same oxidation behaviour. It is suggested that this behaviour of AlSI 304 and AlSI 321, is caused by the formation of martensite in the deformed austenitic matrix.