abstract
- The detrimental effect of grain size refinement on the strain hardening is highlighted in single phase steels. A physical based approach for understanding the underlying mechanisms is presented. In order to overcome this limitation a promising metallurgical route exploiting the thermal stability of mechanically induced twins in austenitic steels has been successfully applied to a stainless grade confirming the opportunity to get nano-structured alloys exhibiting high yield stress with high strain-hardening.