Experimental study on hysteretic behavior of structural stainless steels under cyclic loading

Abstract

This paper reports cyclic loading tests of austenitic stainless steel type 304 and lean duplex stainless steel LDX2101. A total of twenty-four monotonic loading tests and eighteen cyclic loading tests with strain amplitudes varying from ±0.5% to ±2% were performed to study the hysteretic behavior of structural stainless steels. Materials from hot-rolled plates, cold-rolled sheets and finished cold-formed tubes were considered in this study. Three different loading protocols were adopted namely, cyclic ascend, cyclic alternate and cyclic tensile.The failure modes and hysteresis curves of the structural stainless steels have been reported. The hysteresis loops of structural stainless steels are plump, stable and symmetric to the origin which indicates good hysteretic behavior. Based on the test results, the Masing property together with the effects of forming work, stainless steel type and loading protocol on the hysteretic behavior of structural stainless steels have been discussed. It was shown that the structural stainless steels exhibit non-Masing Property except for cold-rolled lean duplex stainless steel LDX2101. It was also shown that forming work played a significant role on the hysteretic behavior of structural stainless steels. Austenitic stainless steel type 304 indicates larger cyclic hardening level than that of lean duplex stainless steel LDX2101. The loading history that relatively large strain cycles occur prior to the small strain cycles has quite obvious effect on the hysteresis behavior of the structural stainless steels.