Nonproportional Low Cycle Fatigue Criterion for Type 304 Stainless Steel

This paper describes a multiaxial low cycle fatigue parameter for correlating Hues under nonproportional loadings. Constant amplitude low cycle fatigue tests were carried out under 14 proportional and complex nonproportional cyclic strain paths using type 304 stainless steel hollow cylinder specimens at room temperature. In nonproportional loading tests, fatigue lives are decreased by as much as a factor of 10 in comparison with those in proportional loading tests with the same strain range. Reduction in fatigue life due to nonproportional loading is closely related to additional nonproportional cyclic hardening. The product of the maximum principal stress and strain ranges correlated the nonproportional fatigue data. A nonproportional cyclic hardening parameter computed from the strain path is also proposed that allows life estimates to be obtained directly from the strain history without the need for a cyclic plasticity model.