Tensile, low-cycle fatigue and subsequent pitting corrosion behaviour of SS 304l steel

Abstract

In this study, monotonic and cyclic deformation of 304L steel were carried out at room temperature and the results suggested that there was a strong correlation between deformation induced martensite formation and the amount of deformation that was applied in terms of prestrain or strain amplitude values. Analysis of the stress strain hysteresis loops revealed that the steel deviated from ideal masing behavior, especially at higher strain amplitudes. Evaluation of the cyclic stress response unveiled that significant secondary hardening took place at strain amplitude levels of ±0.5% and above. A bilinear nature of the cyclic stress strain curve was obtained, implying that the deformation mechanism changed for specimens which were cycled at strain amplitudes higher than ±0.5%. Furthermore, subsequent pitting corrosion tests performed on the prestrained or precycled specimens revealed a distinct pattern in the variation of pitting potential values with the amount martensite that formed at that level of prestrain or strain amplitude of cycling.