Low Cycle Fatigue Behavior and Mechanism of Newly Developed Advanced Heat Resistant Austenitic Stainless Steels at High Temperature
Austenitic stainless steel grade UNS S31035 (Sandvik Sanicro® 25) has been developed for the next generation of 700°C A-USC power plant. This paper will mainly focus on the study of low cycle fatigue behavior and damage mechanisms of the material at room temperature, 600C to 700C by using electron back scatter diffraction and electron channeling contrast image techniques. At room temperature, the material shows a hardening and softening behavior as usual. At high temperature, however, it shows only a cyclic hardening behavior. Dynamic strain ageing can be one of the mechanisms. The damage and fatigue crack initiation mechanisms due to cyclic loading at different temperatures and loading conditions have been identified. The interactions between dislocations or slip bands with grain boundary or twin boundary are the main damage mechanism at low temperature or at high temperature with large strain amplitudes. Strain localization due to dislocation slipping is the main mechanism for the damage in grain.