Ratcheting-Fatigue Behavior of Harmonic-Structure-Designed SUS316L Stainless Steel

Stainless steels with harmonic-structure design have a great balance of high strength and high ductility. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate their fatigue properties for engineering applications. In the present work, the harmonic-structured SUS316L stainless steels were fabricated by mechanical milling (MM) and subsequent hot isostatic pressing (HIP) process. A series of ratcheting-fatigue tests were performed on the harmonic-structured SUS316L steels under stress-control mode at room temperature. Effects of grain structure and stress-loading conditions on ratcheting behavior and fatigue life were investigated. Results showed that grain size and applied mean stress had a significant influence on ratcheting-strain accumulation and fatigue life. Owing to the ultrafine grained structure, tensile strength of the harmonic-structured SUS316L steels could be enhanced, which restrained the ratcheting-strain accumulation, resulting in a prolonged fatigue life. A higher mean stress caused a faster ratcheting-strain accumulation, which led to the deterioration of fatigue life. Moreover, a modified model based on Smith–Watson–Topper (SWT) criterion predicted the ratcheting-fatigue life of the harmonic-structured SUS316L steels well. Most of the fatigue-life points were located in the 5 times error band.