Influence of the loading rate of force on the formation of deformation twins in martensitic stainless steel under repetitive loading–unloading process

•RHSL treatment at room temperature generates a great amount of deformation twins in the steel.•The fraction of twins monotonously increases with the loading rate of force.•The absorption-accumulation-release course of strain energy is dispersed in each cycle of the RHSL treatment.•RHSL treatment promotes continuous nucleation and generation of the deformation twins at room temperature.•Higher loading rate of force prompts the more nucleation of stacking faults and deformation twins in multi-orientation.