On the Effects of Temperature and Loading Frequency on the Fatigue Crack Growth Rate of G91 Steel

The material data of fatigue crack growth and creep crack growth for robust structural integrity evaluations lacks in Subsection NH while it provides material properties of G91 steel for design purposes at high temperature conditions. Creep-fatigue crack initiation and growth tests for a G91 tubular specimen, including a machined defect, have been performed by Kim and it attempted to assess a high temperature crack behavior of G91 side plate specimen by Lee. The fatigue crack growth tests of a G91 compact tension (CT) specimen were performed by Kim at three different temperatures (500 .deg. C, 550 .deg. C, and 600 .deg. C), three loading frequencies (0.1Hz, 1Hz, and 20Hz), and two loading ratio values of 0.1 and 0.3, respectively; thus total 18 test conditions were applied. In this study, complementary tests were performed for selected 8 test conditions among total 18 test conditions to assess the effects of temperature and loading frequency on the fatigue crack growth rate of G91 steel and the test results were discussed. It is known that the fatigue crack growth rate increases as loading frequency decreases, as temperature increases, and load ratio (R) increases, it depends on the test conditions and relative sensitivity. In this study, the fatigue crack growth tests for a G91 compact tension specimen were performed for a various loading frequencies, loading ratios, and temperatures. As shown in Fig. 5 ∼ Fig. 10, it was confirmed that the fatigue crack growth rate increases apparently as temperature increases. The effects of loading frequency and load ratio were assessed by comparing above results and it was found that the fatigue crack growth increases as loading frequency decreases from 20Hz to 0.1Hz and load ratio increases from 0.1 to 0.3. Collected data for high temperature fatigue crack growth of G91 steel would be utilized for the structural integrity assessment of SFR components