THERMO-MECHANICAL AND ISOTHERMAL FATIGUE BEHAVIOR OF AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEEL AISI 316L.

Many structural components of nuclear power plant systems are made of austenitic stainless steels. These structures undergo degradation by thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) caused by simultaneous cyclic straining and temperature cycling, particularly during start-up, shut-down and transient operations. The present work reports the cyclic deformation behavior and fatigue damage of austenitic stainless steel AISI 316L during TMF and isothermal fatigue (IF) testing in air. Total strain controlled in-phase TMF loading in the temperature range 200 - 600 degrees C and isothermal fatigue (IF) at 600 degrees C were performed. Hardening/softening curves, cyclic stress-strain response and fatigue life diagrams were obtained both for TMF and IF tests. Fatigue damage was documented using surface relief and fracture surface observations. Mean stress evolution and fatigue degradation data are employed to discuss the fatigue behaviour of 316L steel both in TMF and IF regimes.