COMPARISON WITH CARBON STEEL

 

1. Density

 

The density of carbon steel is slightly higher than that of ferrite and martensite stainless steel, but slightly lower than that of austenitic stainless steel.

 

2. Resistivity

 

The resistivity increases in order of carbon steel, ferrite, martensite and austenitic stainless steel.

 

3. The order of linear expansion coefficient is similar. Austenitic stainless steel is the highest while carbon steel is the smallest.

 

4. Carbon steel, ferritic stainless steel and martensitic stainless steel have magnetism, while austenitic stainless steel has no magnetism, but it will produce magnetism when martensitic transformation occurs during cold work hardening. Heat treatment can be used to eliminate the martensitic structure and restore its nonmagnetism.

 

Compared with carbon steel, austenitic stainless steel has the following characteristics:

 

1) High resistivity, about 5 times that of carbon steel.

 

2) Large linear expansion coefficient is 40% larger than that of carbon steel, and with the increase of temperature, the value of linear expansion coefficient increases accordingly.

 

3) Low thermal conductivity is about 1/3 of that of carbon steel.