Fatigue crack propagation behavior of Fe25Mn and Fe16Mn2Al steels at room and cryogenic temperatures

The fatigue crack propagation (FCP) behavior of Fe25Mn and Fe16Mn2Al austenitic steels was investigated at 298 and 110 K, and the results were compared with the reported results of Fe24Mn2Cr steel. It was found that the FCP behavior of high-Mn, austenitic steels was largely influenced by the stacking fault energy (SFE) and the grain size. The resistance to FCP of high-Mn steels in this study was enhanced in the near-threshold ΔK regime with decreasing temperature from 298 to 110 K. The improvement for the Fe25Mn and the Fe16Mn2Al specimen was, however, marginal as compared to that of the Fe24Mn2Cr specimen. Other than the change in SFE, the secondary cracking at cryogenic temperature appeared to affect the FCP behavior of high-Mn steels, since the secondary cracks perpendicular to the crack propagating direction could reduce the effective stress intensity factor, decreasing the FCP rates. Sufficiently high stress concentration at grain boundary tended to occur at low temperature for relatively large grain sized Fe24Mn2Cr specimen and cause the secondary cracking, but not for the Fe25Mn and the Fe16Mn2Al specimen.