High-cycle fatigue strength of 22Cr-12Ni austenitic stainless steel at 77 K

Abstract

Abstract The high-cycle fatigue strength of 22Cr-12Ni austenitic stainless steel was evaluated at 77 K for three types of materials with partially recrystallized (PR), finely recrystallized (FR), and solution-treated (ST) microstructures. Subsurface crack initiation was detected at the lower stress level and/or higher cycles in the materials, such that the fatigue crack initiation sites were shifted from the specimen surface to the interior of the specimen with increasing cycles. The ST showed a significant decrease in fatigue strength over 106 cycles due to subsurface crack initiation. Both PR and FR showed a significant improvement in their high-cycle fatigue strength in the high-cycle regime, although the increase in fatigue strength in the low-cycle regime was approximately equal to the increase in tensile strength.