An Analysis of the Fatigue/Creep Behavior of 304 Stainless Steel Using a Continuous Damage Approach

Abstract

Abstract A recently suggested procedure for estimating the life of a material subjected to fatigue-creep loading is applied to analyze the behavior of Type 304 stainless steel on the basis of the experimental data already available in the literature. The predictive technique is based on a combination of the two separate damage functions for fatigue and for creep. The effect of the tension hold time in interspersed creep-fatigue loading on the material life is taken into account by considering the relaxation stress characteristics during the hold period. The technique also permits the evaluation of damage (or healing) due to a compression hold time. The correlation between predictions and available experimental results obtained on Type 304 SS from 538 to 649° C under various loading conditions is discussed.