Very high cycle fatigue life of 2.25Cr-1Mo steel at room and high temperatures

An ultrasonic fatigue testing machine was developed to obtain the very high cycle fatigue life at elevated temperature for safety and reliability of structural components in the faster breeder reactor (FBR). This testing machine consists of an amplifier, booster, horn and equipments such as system controller and data acquisition. The test specimen is attached at the end of the horn. The electric power generated in the amplifier is transformed into the mechanical vibration in the converter and is magnified in the booster and horn. The developed ultrasonic fatigue testing machine enables to carry out the fatigue test at 20kHz so that it can perform the very high cycle fatigue test within a very shorter time as compared with the regular fatigue testing machines such as a hydraulic fatigue testing machine. This study carried out very high cycle fatigue tests using type STBA 24, the steel for tube in boiler and heat exchanger, at room and elevated (673K) temperatures by the developed testing and conventional hydraulic testing machines, and obtained the fatigue lives. This paper also described the cracks observed on specimen surface of fatigued specimen and discussed the very high cycle fatigue strength properties. It was confirmed that the fatigue data obtained by the ultrasonic fatigue testing machine are continuous and compatible with the results obtained by the hydraulic tension-compression testing machine. Fatigue lives more than 106 cycles at room and high temperatures can be predicted conservatively by the best fit design curve employed in the nuclear power plant design. (author)