Thermomechanical and Isothermal Fatigue Behavior of 316LN Stainless Steel with Varying Nitrogen Content

Abstract

Thermomechanical (TMF) and isothermal (IF) fatigue behavior of 316LN stainless steel alloyed with 0.07, 0.14, and 0.22 wt pct nitrogen is presented in this manuscript. In the TMF tests with temperature cycling in the range of 573 K to 873 K (300 °C to 600 °C), life decreased with increasing nitrogen content for both in-phase (IP) and out-of-phase (OP) cycling, with a peak at 0.07 wt pct N. In contrast, 0.14 wt pct N yielded maximum life under IF cycling carried out at 873 K (600 °C). Cyclic lives are seen to follow the sequence, IP-TMF < IF < OP-TMF cycling, and it remained same irrespective of the nitrogen content in 316LN SS. Lives under IP-TMF are lower than those in OP cycling by a factor of 2 to 2.5, in spite of the higher cyclic stress response in OP cycling. At all the nitrogen contents in the present study, nitrogen and dynamic strain aging induced slip localization in the form of planar slip bands both in IP and OP-TMF, in comparison to IF deformation wherein complete planar slip mode of deformation is evidenced only at 0.22 wt pct N. In TMF studies, increasing nitrogen content promoted strong slip localization (i.e., increase in slip band density with a decrease in interband spacing) in combination with high tensile cyclic stresses that marred the beneficial effect of nitrogen content on TMF life.