Influence of testing mode on the fatigue behavior of austenitic grain at the nanometric length scale for TRIP steels

Abstract Metastable austenitic stainless steels, and in particular the TRansformation Induced Plasticity steels, rely on a phase transformation from a ductile austenite to a slightly harder martensite. These materials under fatigue testing conditions at the macrometric length scale can induce a softening or hardening effect as a function of the underlying deformation feature activated. Thus, given the interaction of single grains in polycrystalline materials, the collective response to macroscopic fatigue testing is not trivial to interpret. Within this context, small scale tests are required to obtain a more in detail understanding of the fatigue properties at the local level of those materials. In this regard, cyclic nanoindentation tests represent a suitable technique to give insight on the local fatigue of metastable stainless steels for a certain crystallographic orientation. In this experimental work, the influence of the testing mode (loading and/or displacement control mode) on the fatigue behavior of austenitic grains as a function of their micromechanical properties as well as their deformation features was investigated in detail. It was found that the experiments done under loading control mode could be compared to conventional low cycle fatigue tests. In contrast when experiments were performed under displacement control mode they may be compared to high cycle fatigue tests. Furthermore, the microstructural observation by transmission electron microscopy allowed to observe the formation of shear bands. This phenomenon preceded the apparition of martensitic laths during the cyclic indentation process.