Characterization and modelling of both high-cycle high-temperature fatigue behaviour of Stainless Steel Grades

In the same context of thermo-mechanical fatigue and high temperature applications of stainless steel, high-frequency vibration fatigue at high temperatures should be considered, in particular for automotive exhaust gas applications. In fact one of the most frequent incidents that can happen on exhaust components is an accumulation of low-cycle thermal fatigue and high-cycle fatigue. The prediction of the lifetime of a structure under such complex thermal and mechanical loading is therefore a constant challenge at high temperature due to the coupling of metallurgical, oxidation or creep effects. In order to better understand in a first approach, the high cycle fatigue of stainless steels at high temperatures, traction-compression tests were performed on flat specimens at 25Hz, under air and in isothermal conditions from ambient temperature to 850 degrees C. Two different stress ratios, R=-1 and 0.1, are characterized with the objective to assess a multiaxial model for high temperature. Different criteria are used to predict the ruin of a structure under high-cycle fatigue but in general for ambient-around temperatures. In particular, multiaxial and stress-based DangVan criterion is today widely used to evaluate the risk of fatigue cracks initiation and it has been implemented recently in our fatigue life processor Xhaust_Life (R). Therefore the Dang Van criterion was identified from the isothermal high cycle fatigue using the 2 stress ratio and its validity is discussed especially for temperatures higher than 500 degrees C where strain rate and creep effects have increasing influence. Results are presented for two ferritic stainless steel grades used in high temperature exhaust applications: K41X (AISI 441, EN 1.4509) and K44X (AISI 444Nb, EN 1.4521).