Nao Fujimura

Damage Assessment on Low Cycle Fatigue Properties of Cyclic Pre-Strained Austenitic Stainless Steel

The effects of cyclic pre-strain on low cycle fatigue properties of austenitic stainless steel were investigated, and the fatigue damage was assessed based on several parameters such as the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of diffracted X-ray profile and surface roughness of specimens. The strain-controlled tests were conducted under strain ratio Re = −1 and various constant total strain ranges. Also the change in remnant fatigue lives were investigated when the cyclic pre-strain were applied to the specimens under the different number of cycles which were determined with reference to the usage factor UFpre ranged from 0.2 to 0.8. As a result, the remnant fatigue life of the pre-strained samples became shorter than that of the sample without pre-strain as the UFpre increased. The relationship between the pre-strain damage expressed in UFpre and the remnant fatigue damage in UFpost was roughly described by the cumulative linear damage law: UFpre + UFpost = 1. Namely, the cyclic pre-strain affected the remnant fatigue lives. In order to evaluate the effects of cyclic pre-strain on fatigue lives more precisely, the damage in the cyclic pre-straining processes was estimated by using FWHM and surface roughness. The FWHM of the specimens with pre-strain once decreased with increase in UFpre , and then increased after showing a minimum value. The surface roughness of specimens increased linearly with an increase of the number of pre-straining cycles. These results suggested that the damage due to pre-strain can be assessed by means of FWHM and surface roughness of specimens.Copyright

Application of Surface Roughness Parameters to the Evaluation of Low Cycle Fatigue Damage in Austenitic Stainless Steel

Changes in the surface roughness of SUS316NG during cyclic loadings were investigated, and the relations between those changes and the crack initiation and propagation processes are discussed on the basis of microscopic observations and cellulose acetate replica observations. Strain-controlled fatigue tests were conducted at three constant strain ranges. Surface roughness was measured periodically during the tests, and three roughness parameters were calculated: arithmetic mean roughness Ra, surface profile maximum height Rmax, and maximum valley depth Rv. Until the middle of fatigue life, all three increased linearly with the number of cycles regardless of the strain range, and their rates of increase became smaller with decreasing strain range. Surface observation revealed that small cracks initiated very early in fatigue life, propagated slowly until the middle of fatigue life, and then grew rapidly. Changes in surface roughness are therefore sensitive to fatigue loading even when cracks are very small and crack detection is difficult. The results suggest that surface roughness can probably be used to assess fatigue damage because until the middle of fatigue life it increases linearly with the number of cycles. The definition of each roughness parameter and the changes show that Rmax and Rv are suitable for damage assessment.Copyright