Fatigue fracture mechanism maps for a type 304 stainless steel

Abstract

Fatigue fracture mechanism maps at room temperature and 573 K for a type 304 stainless steel were constructed by correlating the crack propagation rate with information obtained on the fracture surface. Depending on the crack propagation rate, ranging from 1 × 10−6 to 1 × 10−11 m/cycle, three types of fracture surfaces were observed. One was a striation region; the second was a “featureless” fracture region, which appeared rough under scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation; and the third was crystallographic fracture region, which appeared smooth under SEM observation. The area fractions and the indexes of the fracture surfaces were quantified and identified by the etch-pit method. From the results, crack initiation and propagation mechanisms were cleared and fatigue fracture mechanism maps were constructed. The maps may be useful for investigating the cause of the fatigue failure accident of structures made of type 304 steels.