Improvement of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel low-cycle fatigue life by initial and intermittent deep rolling

In the current study, deep rolling treatment was applied to enhance low-cycle fatigue behavior of the AISI 304 stainless steel. Desirability function approach was applied to determine the process parameters offering the optimal surface roughness and hardness as these surface characteristics are supposed to control the fatigue cracks initiation and growth. The enhancement of the low-cycle fatigue behavior was investigated using strain-controlled fatigue tests applied to machined and deep rolled specimens associated to experimental evaluation of surface topography, microhardness, and residual stress. Findings of this work show that an increase of the fatigue lifetime of the AISI 304 components can be achieved by the application of deep rolling to machined surfaces. Moreover, the application of an intermittent deep rolling leads to a significant extension of service life especially when it is performed at low strain amplitudes. The improvement of the residual lifetime of deep rolled components is explained based on evaluations of the surface texture changes, residual stresses, cold work hardening, and strain-induced martensite transformation.