One of the most interesting phenomena that occur in ductile materials strained in the proximity of absolute zero are the adiabatic shear bands. In the stainless steels, massively used to construct superconducting magnets, their occurrence can be detected by various techniques, including magnetometric methods (feritscope). Formation of adiabatic shear bands is strictly correlated to the occurrence of the intermittent plastic flow (IPF), characteristic of stainless steels strained in liquid or superfluid helium. Evidence for the occurrence of the phase transformation during nucleation and formation of the shear bands in the proximity of absolute zero is for the first time given. The rate of shear bands propagation along the sample as well as the amount of secondary phase is measured. In order to describe the intermittent plastic flow, novel double surface model has been developed. It includes type Huber-Mises-Hencky yield surface, and new recovery surface reflecting the lower bound for the stress oscillations. The yield surface can move and expand due to nonlinear mixed (kinematic and isotropic) hardening, resulting from the phase transformation, whereas, the recovery surface remains constant. The serrations occur between the yield surface and the recovery surface, with the yield surface coming back to its initial position after each serration. Each serration corresponds to formation of single shear band there, where the easy slip planes are available, and the mechanism of anchoring the shear bands by the secondary phase is explained. New double surface model has been correlated to the experimental data and applied to explain stress oscillations during the regular stage of the intermittent plastic flow, when the shear bands gradually cover the gauge length of the sample.
