Effect of high magnetic field on the recovery of tempered martensite

Influence of a 12 T high magnetic field on the recovery of tempered martensite in the chromium-containing steel was investigated. The results showed that a high magnetic field caused the percentage of low angle boundaries θ between 5° ~ 8° to increase by about 8%, while correspondingly decreased the percentage of high angle boundaries (>15°) by 9%. With the application of the magnetic field, the strain energy increased due to the higher density of free dislocations in the martensite, which leads to the retardation of recovery and little change in its lath shape due to the inhibition of the transition from low to high angle boundaries to maintain lower energy in the matrix.