Evaluation of Mechanical Properties and Fatigue Behavior of STS 304L due to Plastic Working

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the cold reduction rate and an ultrasonic fatigue test (UFT) on the fatigue behaviors of STS 304L. The tensile strength, yield strength, hardness value and fatigue limit in the UFT fatigue test linearly increased as thickness decreased from 1.5 mm to 1.1 mm, as the cold reduction rate of STS 304L increased. As a result of the UFT fatigue test (R = -1) of four specimens, the fatigue limit of the S-N curve formed a knee point in the region of 10⁶, and the 2nd fatigue limit caused by giga cycle fatigue did not appeared. In the case of t = 1.1 mm, the highest fatigue limit was 345 MPa, which was 64.3% higher than the original material (t = 1.5 mm). As a result of the UFT fatigue test of STS 304L, many small surface cracks occurred, grown, coalesced while tearing.