Strain-Controlled Fatigue Behavior of Nanotwin- Strengthened 304 Austenitic Stainless Steel
PAN Qingsong, CUI Fang, TAO Nairong, LU Lei()
Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Cite this article:
PAN Qingsong, CUI Fang, TAO Nairong, LU Lei. Strain-Controlled Fatigue Behavior of Nanotwin- Strengthened 304 Austenitic Stainless Steel. Acta Metall Sin, 2022, 58(1): 45-53.
Engineering nano-scale twin boundaries has been recognized as a novel strategy to achieve a superior combination of tensile strength, ductility, and fatigue limit in metallic materials. However, to date, the strain-controlled fatigue behavior of nanotwin (NT)-strengthened metals is still rarely explored, most possibly owing to the difficulty in preparing bulk fatigue samples. In this work, a bulk heterogeneously structured 304 stainless steel (304 SS) containing 30% volume fraction of NT bundles embedded in the micrometer-sized grain matrix was prepared and studied under constant plastic strain amplitude-controlled fatigue tests. A considerable fatigue life and much higher cyclic flow stress level, while maintaining a weaker degree of cyclic softening at larger strain amplitude, was achieved in NT-strengthened 304 SS, compared with its coarse-grained counterpart in the same strain-controlled fatigue tests. This is fundamentally distinct from the more obvious softening behavior of conventional nanostructured metals induced by strain localization at larger strain amplitude. Such exceptional low-cycle fatigue properties were attributed to the presence of a high-strength NT structure associated with novel mechanical stability and its co-deformation with surrounding grains, effectively suppressing strain localization and fatigue crack initiation.
Fund: National Natural Science Foundation of China(51931010);Key Research Program of Frontier Science and International Partnership Program, Chinese Academy of Sciences(GJHZ2029);Liaoning Revitalization Talents Program(XLYC1802026);Youth Innovation Promotion Association, Chinese Academy of Sciences(2019196)
About author: LU Lei, professor, Tel: (024)23971939, E-mail: llu@imr.ac.cn
Fig.1 Cross-sectional SEM image of nanotwin (NT)-strengthened 304 stainless steel (304 SS) comprising NT bundles embedded in micrometer-sized grain matrix (a), TEM images of static recrystallized (SRX) grains with few dislocations (b) and nanotwins with numerous dislocations (c) (Insets in Figs.1b and c are the selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns)
Fig.2 Cyclic stress response curves (a) and corresponding cyclic softening ratio (R) (b) of NT-strengthened 304 SS and coarse grained (CG) 304 SS under constant plastic strain amplitude (Δεpl / 2) control (Arrows in Fig.2a denote the sample without failure, Nf denotes the fatigue-to-failure life)
Fig.3 SEM image of surface fatigue features in NT strengthened 304 SS fatigued at Δεpl / 2 of 0.05% (a, b) and 0.25% (c, d) (LA denotes the cyclic loading axis. The white arrows in Figs.3a and d denote the slip bands and crack in coare grains, respectively. The black arrows in Figs.3b and c denote the zigzag slip bands across twin boundaries while the white ones in Fig.3b indicate the slip bands parallel to twin boundaries)
Fig.4 CLSM images of 3-dimentional surface fatigue features in NT-strengthened 304 SS fatigued at Δεpl / 2 of 0.05% (a) and 0.25% (b), and corresponding height fluctuation of slip band along the lines in Fig.4a (h—net height variation between adjacent hill and valley) (c) and Fig.4b (d)
Fig.5 Bright-field TEM images of typical NT grain with intact twins (a) and detwinned structures in the vicinity of SRX grains in NT strengthened 304 SS fatigued at Δεpl / 2 of 0.05% (b), and TEM image of rectangle area in Fig.5b showing twin boundaries with steps and dislocation tangles in the twin interior (c)
Fig.6 Overview TEM images of the microstructure in NT-strengthened 304 SS fatigued at Δεpl / 2 of 0.25% (a), high-magnification image of one typical NT grain undegoing cyclic plastic strain with correlated necklace dislocations denoted by white arrows (b) and its surrounding SRX grains with tiny α' martensite (denoted by the black arrows) around dislocation walls (c), compared to that far away from NT grains (d), and corresponding distribution of twin lamella thickness (λ) (e) (The black arrows in Figs.6a denote dislocation cell in SRX, inset in Fig.6c is the SAED pattern)
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