Thermal fatigue behavior of AISI 304L, AISI 316, AISI 321, and AISI 347 austenitic stainless steels as well as 3RE60 and ACX-100 duplex stainless steels was studied. Test samples were subjected to cyclic thermal transients in the temperature range 20 – 600°C. The resulting thermal strains were analyzed with measurements and numerical calculations. The evolution of thermal fatigue damage was monitored with periodic residual stress measurements and replica-assisted microscopy. The elastic strains of the ferrite phase in duplex stainless steels were studied using Barkhausen noise. Finally, destructive analyses including fractographic scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses were performed. The surface residual stresses changed markedly during the first load cycles. In the austenitic stainless steels yielding during the rapid cooling resulted in compressive residual stresses from -200 MPa (20 – 300°C temperature cycle) to -600 MPa (20 – 600°C temperature cycle). After 10 cycles the residual stresses stabilized and then started to relax due to crack formation. Cracks were seen to initiate from persistent slip bands (PSBs) and in 3RE60 from MnS inclusions. In duplex stainless steels the phase boundaries retarded crack growth markedly. In the austenitic stainless steels, the fracture surfaces of thermal fatigue cracks showed extensive striation formation, i.e. they were similar to mechanical fatigue. The dislocation density was lower than expected based on mechanical fatigue data. Dislocation tangles and occasional cell tendency was observed. In duplex stainless steels the plastic deformation concentrated to the austenite phase. The obtained thermal fatigue data were compared with mechanical fatigue data from literature and with the ASME design curve. The ASME design curve was found to give safe design life, although the remaining safety factor on strain is decreased to 1.5. The total strain (elastic+plastic) caused by thermal loading was solved with linear-elastic FE-analysis. Thermal fatigue crack growth was predicted successively using total strain solution of an uncracked component and a strainbased growth model: da dN C a tot m = 7 7 ∆ε , where C7=1.6 and m7=1.3 for the studied austenitic stainless steels. The model is applicable to small fatigue cracks (0.05 4 mm) growing in varying temperature and strain fields and is temperature-independent in the studied range. © All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form of by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

Thermal fatigue of austenitic and duplex stainless steels

Crystallographic analysis of fatigue fracture initiation in 8Ni-0.1C martensitic steel

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2005 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, July 31--August 4, 2005

/pdf/applied-fracture-mechanics-in-metallurgical-failure-2donf4o5oy.pdf

Applied Fracture Mechanics in Metallurgical Failure Investigations

RESUMO Este trabalho avaliou o comportamento de fratura da liga de alumínio AA7075-T6 submetida a carregamento de fadiga. Ambos os corpos de prova entalhados e não entalhados foram submetidos a um tratamento térmico de retrogression and re-aging (RRA) e nitretação a plasma antes dos ensaios mecânicos. A nitretação a plasma, que tem sido um método escolhido para aumentar a dureza superficial e as resistências à fadiga, desgaste e corrosão de diversas ligas, foi realizada com tela ativa com fonte DC de 20 Hz e ciclo de trabalho de 40 Hz. O tratamento RRA, que é utilizado para aumentar a resistência e a dureza da liga de alumínio AA7075 e obter melhorias nos comportamentos de fadiga e corrosão, foi realizado a 200 °C por 20 minutos com resfriamento a água (resolubilização), seguido de 24 horas a 120 °C (reenvelhecimento). Os ensaios de fadiga axial de corpos de prova entalhados e não entalhados foram realizados com R = 0,1, frequência de 14 Hz, e em nível de tensão de 150 MPa para corpos de prova entalhados e 500 MPa para corpos de prova não entalhados. A fratura por fadiga foi então realizada via estereomicroscopia e microscopia eletrônica de varredura. Para os corpos de prova não entalhados, as condições AA7075-T6 e AA7075-RRA apresentaram características de fratura semelhantes, com boa definição dos três estágios de falha por fadiga; a condição nitretada AA7075 não apresentou evidência de fratura por fadiga típica. Os corpos de prova entalhados apresentaram fractografias semelhantes à condição de concentração de tensão severa, com marcas superficiais convexas à região de nucleação.

A. Komine

Papers

Fractography and Fracture Mechanics