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Microstructural evolutions of the 4Al alumina-forming austenitic steel after cold rolling with different reductions from 5% to 30% and then annealing were investigated using electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Tensile properties and hardness were also measured. The results show that the average grain size gradually decreases with an increase in the cold-rolling reduction. The low angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) are dominant in the cold-rolled samples, but high angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) form in the annealed samples, indicating that the grains are refined under the action of dislocations. During cold rolling, high-density dislocations are initially introduced in the samples, which contributes to a large number of dislocations remaining after annealing. With the sustaining increase in cold-rolled deformation, the samples exhibit more excellent tensile strength and hardness due to the decrease in grain size and increase in dislocation density, especially for the samples subjected to 30% cold-rolling reduction. The contribution of dislocations on yield strength is more than 60%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]