Some observations on the relationship between microstructures, fatigue and creep behaviours in a type 316 stainless steel

Comparisons have been made between microstructures in Type 316 steel after high strain fatigue or creep at 625 deg. C and which had been subjected to various pre-test ageing treatments. The microstructures observed in the specimens generally consisted of a three dimensional dislocation network together with 'cells' delineated by dislocation sub-boundaries. In fatigue, under strain control conditions, pre-ageing reduced the dislocation density and coarsened the cell structure produced during test. This was related to less solute hardening and strain induced precipitation after pre-ageing and was accompanied by a lower rate of cyclic strain hardening. During fatigue with dwell, the dislocations introduced led to five times more precipitation than that observed during stress free ageing solution treated material. The 'cell' structure produced by fatigue was retained even after solution treatment at 1050 deg. C. In creep, under constant loads, a coarser and more clearly defined dislocation sub-grain structure developed and its size was not influenced by pre-ageing. However, creep testing after various pre-treatments, including fatigue, demonstrated that the creep resistance was dependent on a combination of solution strengthening, cell size and dislocation density. Consequently prior fatigue considerably increased the creep resistance. The work has demonstrated the microstructural aspects of creep-fatigue interaction and that the use of creep data obtained from solution treated material is likely to lead to errors in creep-fatigue life fraction summations.