Influence of Plastic Strain Control on Martensite Evolution and Fatigue Life of Metastable Austenitic Stainless Steel

Metastable austenitic stainless steel was investigated during fatigue tests under strain control with either constant total or constant plastic strain amplitude. Two different material conditions with coarse-grained and ultrafine-grained microstructure were in focus. The influence of plastic strain control of the fatigue test on both the martensitic phase transformation as well as on the fatigue lives is discussed. In addition, an approach for calculating the Coffin–Manson–Basquin parameters to estimate fatigue lives based on strain-controlled tests at constant total strain amplitudes is proposed for materials undergoing a strong secondary hardening due to martensitic phase transformation.