Plasticity-Induced Martensitic Phase Transformation in Fatigue of Unnotched SUS304 Plates

The present study has investigated plasticity-induced martensitic phase transformation in fatigue of unnotched SUS304 plates. Martensitic phase transformation occurred in uunotched SUS304 plate specimens fatigued at room temperature in air. Volume fraction Va’ of a’ martensite in the uunotched portion of fatigued specimens was measured by ferrite scope. The relations between the maximum value of Va’, Va’max, and the number of load cycles N were represented by reverse sigmoidal curves for all the applied stress range Ds levels tested in this study. For the most portion of fatigue life, the value of Va’max remained almost constant. This value was increased with increase in the value of Ds. The spatial distribution of Va’ in the specimens varied with N: i.e., continued cycling of stress made a’ transformation localized near the central portion of specimens where the Va’ value reached as high as 35-40%. This value is more than doubled compared to the highest Va’ value found in the tensile tests of SUS304 at room temperature in air. Invisible cracks of 200µm in length were found in the high Va’ value region. These results imply that the measurement of Va’ in fatigued SUS304 components may detect crack initiation sites and may predict residual fatigue life.