In the present study, molecular dynamics simulations were employed to investigate the effect of strain rate on the plastic deformation mechanism of nanocrystalline 316 L stainless-steel, wherein there was an average grain of 2.5–11.5 nm at room temperature. The results showed that the critical grain size was 7.7 nm. Below critical grain size, grain boundary activation was dominant (i.e., grain boundary sliding and grain rotation). Above critical grain size, dislocation activities were dominant. There was a slight effect that occurred during the plastic deformation mechanism transition from dislocation-based plasticity to grain boundaries, as a result of the stress rate on larger grain sizes. There was also a greater sensitive on the strain rate for smaller grain sizes than the larger grain sizes. We chose samples of 316 L nanocrystalline stainless-steel with mean grain sizes of 2.5, 4.1, and 9.9 nm. The values of strain rate sensitivity were 0.19, 0.22, and 0.14, respectively. These values indicated that small grain sizes in the plastic deformation mechanism, such as grain boundary sliding and grain boundary rotation, were sensitive to strain rates bigger than those of the larger grain sizes. We found that the stacking fault was formed by partial dislocation in all samples. These stacking faults were obstacles to partial dislocation emission in more sensitive stress rates. Additionally, the results showed that mechanical properties such as yield stress and flow stress increased by increasing the strain rate.

Molecular dynamics simulations were conducted to study the mechanical properties of nanocrystalline 316L stainless steel under tensile load. The results revealed that the Young’s modulus increased with increasing grain size below the critical average grain size. Two grain size regions were identified in the plot of yield stress. In the first region, corresponding to grain sizes above 7.7 nm, the yield stress decreased with increasing grain size and the dominant deformation mechanisms were deformation twinning and extended dislocation. In the second region, corresponding to grain sizes below 7.7 nm, the yield stress decreased rapidly with decreasing grain size and the dominant deformation mechanisms were grain boundary sliding and also grain rotation. The yield strength and Young’s modulus were both found to decrease with increasing temperature, which increased the interatomic distance and thereby decreased the interatomic bonding force.

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