Fatigue Life Properties of Circumferentially-Notched, Type 304 Austenitic Stainless Steel in Hydrogen Gas

Author(s):  
Naoaki Nagaishi ◽  
Michio Yoshikawa ◽  
Saburo Okazaki ◽  
Hisao Matsunaga ◽  
Junichiro Yamabe ◽  
...  

Fatigue tests were performed using circumferentially-notched, round-bar specimens with a stress concentration factor, Kt, of 6.6 for Type 304, meta-stable, austenitic stainless steel. The tests were carried out in ambient air and in hydrogen gas at a pressure of 0.7 MPa at room temperature. In the relatively short fatigue life regime, the specimen showed a marked decrease in fatigue life. In contrast, in the longer-life regime, the specimen showed no degradation in fatigue life in hydrogen gas. The fatigue life curve and fatigue limit were predicted by assuming that the notch was equivalent to a circumferential crack, with the predicted values subsequently compared with the experimental results. With regard to the low-alloy steel, JIS-SCM435, it has been reported that the predictions were in good agreement with the experimental data [1]. However, there is a disparity between what was predicted and the actual experimental results in the case of Type 304. The reasons for this divergence are also discussed in relation to the yielding condition, as well as to the cyclic-plastic deformation behavior at the notch root.

Author(s):  
Naoaki Nagaishi ◽  
Michio Yoshikawa ◽  
Saburo Okazaki ◽  
Hisao Matsunaga ◽  
Junichiro Yamabe ◽  
...  

Fatigue tests were performed using three types of round-bar specimens of Type 304, meta-stable, austenitic stainless steel. The specimens had circumferential notch with stress concentration factors, Kt, of 2, 3 or 6.6. Load controlled fatigue tests were conducted at stress ratio, R, of 0.1 and −1 in ambient air at room temperature. At R of 0.1, fatigue life was decreased with an increase in the stress concentration factor. Conversely, at R of −1, the stress concentration factor had little influence on the fatigue life. To understand the mechanism of the stress ratio effect, local deformation behavior at and beneath the notch root during the fatigue test was computed by means of finite element analysis considering that the plastic constitutive model describes the cyclic stress-strain response.


2005 ◽  
Vol 297-300 ◽  
pp. 927-932 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Aoki ◽  
T. Matsuyama ◽  
Yasuji Oda ◽  
Kenji Higashida ◽  
Hiroshi Noguchi

In order to investigate the hydrogen gas effect on non-propagation phenomena of a type 304 austenitic stainless steel, fatigue tests with in-situ observation using a Scanning Laser Microscope were performed in air, in 0.18MPa hydrogen gas and in 0.18MPa nitrogen gas. A nonpropagating crack was observed during the fatigue test in air. At almost the same stress level of non-propagating in air, non-propagating cracks were also observed in fatigue tests in hydrogen and in nitrogen. Stress level of the non-propagation is not sufficiently different in the three environments. However, the process up to non-propagation differs from each other, for example, the crack path and debris.


Author(s):  
Takashi Iijima ◽  
Hirotoshi Enoki ◽  
Junichiro Yamabe ◽  
Bai An

A high pressure material testing system (max. pressure: 140 MPa, temperature range: −80 ∼ 90 °C) was developed to investigate the testing method of material compatibility for high pressure gaseous hydrogen. In this study, SSRT and fatigue life test of JIS SUS304 and SUS316 austenitic stainless steel were performed in high pressure gaseous hydrogen at room temperature, −45, and −80 °C. These testing results were compared with those in laboratory air atmosphere at the same test temperature range. The SSRT tests were performed at a strain rate of 5 × 10−5 s−1 in 105 MPa hydrogen gas, and nominal stress-strain curves were obtained. The 0.2% offset yield strength (Ys) did not show remarkable difference between in hydrogen gas and in laboratory air atmosphere for SUS304 and SUS316. Total elongation after fracture (El) in hydrogen gas at −45 and −80 °C were approximately 15 % for SUS304 and 20% for SUS316. In the case of fatigue life tests, a smooth surface round bar test specimen with a diameter of 7 mm was used at a frequency of 1, 0.1, and 0.01 Hz under stress rate of R = −1 (tension-compression) in 100 MPa hydrogen gas. It can be seen that the fatigue life test results of SUS304 and SUS316 showed same tendency. The fatigue limit at room temperature in 100 MPa hydrogen gas was comparable with that in laboratory air. The room temperature fatigue life in high pressure hydrogen gas appeared to be the more severe condition compared to the fatigue life at low temperature. The normalized stress amplitude (σa / Ts) at the fatigue limit was 0.37 to 0.39 for SUS304 and SUS316 austenitic stainless steels, respectively.


Author(s):  
Yuichi Fukuta ◽  
Yuichiro Nomura ◽  
Seiji Asada

NUREG/CR-6909 of USA and JSME of Japan proposed new rules for evaluating environmental effects in fatigue analyses of reactors components. These rules were established from a lot of fatigue data with polished specimens under simple loading condition. The effects of surface finish or complex loading condition were reported in some papers, but these data were obtained with the simple shaped specimens. In order to evaluate the effects of surface finish and loading condition and to confirm the applicability of the proposed rules to actual components, Low Cycle Fatigue tests are performed in PWR environment with the specimens cut from 316 austenitic stainless steel welded piping. The pipes are machined to have three levels of surface finish condition and the load pattern simulating the thermal stress is applied to specimens. In this study, the effect of surface finish on fatigue life is included to be small for 316 austenitic stainless steel welded piping. Considering the insensitive region in the current evaluation rule, predicted accuracy is increased and possibility of improving the current rule is indicated.


Author(s):  
Katsumi Sakaguchi ◽  
Yasuhide Asada ◽  
Masao Itatani ◽  
Toshiyuki Saito

Fatigue testing was conducted on notched specimens of austenitic stainless steel 316NG in high temperature water. Specimens were notched round bar with elastic stress concentration factors Kt of 1.4 and 3. For the specimen of Kt = 3, fatigue test was also performed in high temperature air. Environmental correction factor Fen recently proposed by Environmental Fatigue Tests (EFT) project in Japan Nuclear Safety Organization (JNES) was applied to the result of fatigue test to evaluate the environmental effects on fatigue life of notched specimen. Since the notch root strain varies non-proportionally to nominal strain in the elastic-plastic region, the modified rate approach method was applied to predict the fatigue life of notched specimen in the water, which was proposed to account for the environmental effect on fatigue life of nuclear component materials under varying conditions. Notch root strain and strain rate were calculated by FEM analysis. The difference between predicted and experimental fatigue lives in high temperature water was within factor of 2 for Kt = 3. The relationships between fictitious stress amplitude at notch root (= notch root strain amplitude multiplied by elastic modulus) and corrected fatigue life shows good coincidence with best fit curve for austenitic stainless steels. It is concluded that the modified rate approach method and current environmental correction factor Fen proposed by EFT project is applicable to predict fatigue life of the stress concentration when the notch root strain is adequately estimated.


Author(s):  
A. Fissolo ◽  
J. M. Stelmaszyk

In order to estimate the crack initiation damage, and also the water leakage conditions on PWR pipes, uniaxial fatigue curves are often used. They were deduced from strain or stress load control tests using normalised cylindrical specimens. However, severe thermo-mechanical loading fluctuations are observed in operating conditions. Components may also be submitted to transient loadings. The purpose of the present work is to start investigation on the fatigue life with a variable loading, in order to examine cumulative damage effect in fatigue. In this frame, multilevel strain controlled fatigue tests have been performed on a Type 304-L stainless steel (elaborated in accordance with the RCC-M specifications). The experimental results show that linear Miner’s rule is not verified in our conditions. When the strains are applied in a decreasing order (High-Low strain sequence), the summation of cycle ratios is smaller than unity, whatever the number of applied levels, whereas this summation is higher than one for an increasing order (Low-High strain sequence). A loading sequence effect is clearly evidenced. Different cumulative fatigue damage theories, proposed in literature, have been also tested. Some of them have been given better estimation than the Miner’s rule. That is the case of the so-called “Hybrid Theory” proposed and tested before by Bui Quoc on a Type 304-L steel. Extension of a model proposed by S. Taheri would seem also promising. At this stage, final conclusion cannot be yet deduced, additional investigations are needed.


Author(s):  
Takashi Iijima ◽  
Hirotoshi Enoki ◽  
Junichiro Yamabe ◽  
Mitsuo Kimura ◽  
Bai An

Abstract SSRT and fatigue life tests of SUS301 austenitic stainless steel were performed to examine the effect of hydrogen on the mechanical properties. Ni content of SUS301, 6.00–8.00 mass%, is lower than that of SUS304 in JIS standard for austenitic stainless steels. In the case of SSRT tests, specimens with and without hydrogen charging were tested in laboratory air at room temperature (R.T.), −45 °C, and −80 °C. The 0.2% offset yield strength (Ys) of the hydrogen charged specimens was less than 300 MPa in the tested temperature range. The tensile strength (Ts) and total elongation (El) of hydrogen charged specimens decreased remarkably. With decreasing testing temperature, fracture surface facet of the hydrogen charged specimens became dominant. Therefore, the effect of hydrogen on the tensile properties of SUS301 is supposed to be large. Specimens with and without hydrogen charging were fatigued in laboratory air at R.T., and specimens without hydrogen charging were fatigued in 100 MPa hydrogen gas atmosphere at R.T. Number of cycles (Nf) at finite fatigue life region of the hydrogen charged specimens and of the specimens tested in hydrogen gas were two orders shorter than that of the specimens tested in air. However, the finite fatigue life region of the hydrogen charged specimens and the specimens tested in hydrogen gas showed a different profile. Additionally, ferrite equivalents of all fatigue tested specimens and fatigued fracture surface morphology suggested the fatigue fracture mechanism between the hydrogen charged specimens tested in air and the non-charged specimens tested in 100 MPa hydrogen gas seems to be different. Therefore, further investigations are required to clear this difference.


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