Low cycle fatigue properties and microstructure of P92 ferritic-martensitic steel at room temperature and 873 K

Highlights: • The initial lath structure is changed into equiaxed subgrains with reduced dislocation density. • High temperature promotes the formation and growth of subgrains by accelerating dislocation movement and boundary migration. • The cyclic softening is suppressed by the interactions between dislocations and the precipitates. • At high temperature, this interactions effect is weakened. -- Abstract: Low cycle fatigue tests for P92 heat-resistant steels (P92 HRS) were conducted at room temperature (RT) and elevated temperature (873 K). The fatigue test results showed that P92 steel showed softening characteristics during fatigue at RT and 873 K, and the increase of temperature and strain amplitude was the main reason for the decrease of uniaxial fatigue life. The specimens before and after fatigue test at two temperatures were observed and analyzed by transmission electron microscope (TEM) coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED). Microstructure observations revealed that the cyclic softening was caused by the annihilation of dislocations, as well as the fragmentation and polygonization of lath structure. High temperature promoted the formation of subgrains by accelerating the motion of dislocations and migration of low-angle grain boundaries (LABs). With the continuously decreasing of dislocation density, the growth of equiaxed subgrains and the weakening of the precipitation strengthening, the softening rate of the material was further increased until the final fracture occurs. Therefore, the evolution of microstructure of 9Cr martensitic steel during the low cycle fatigue process was deduced and described.