Thermomechanical fatigue behavior of nitrogen enhanced 316LN stainless steel: Effect of cyclic strain

Abstract

Thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) behavior of nitrogen enhanced 316LN stainless steel (with 0.14wt.% N) is investigated under in-phase (IP) and out-of-phase (OP) conditions at cyclic strain amplitudes of ±0.25 to ±0.8% and with a temperature interval of 623–873K. The study elucidates the differences in cyclic stress-strain response, TMF lives and fracture behavior of the material under IP and OP-TMF in the light of dynamic strain aging, thermal recovery and creep. The manifestations of these factors/phenomena are found to vary along stress-strain hysteresis loops, thereby leading to differences in cyclic strain hardening exponent (n′) and coefficient (K′) between the tensile and compressive branches of hysteresis loops. Irrespective of the imposed cyclic strain, transgranular fatigue failure is observed under OP-cycling in contrast to mixed-mode fracture under IP-cycling. The IP-cycling led to considerably lower cyclic life (i.e. 34–49%) compared to those under OP-TMF, with the life reduction being more significant (∼48.5%) at intermediate mechanical strain amplitudes of ±0.4 and ±0.6%. A comparison of the fatigue design curves under TMF with the corresponding isothermal fatigue curves (as per the RCC-MR design code) revealed a lack of conservatism in the latter.