Thermal fatigue crack growth in stainless steel

A judgment of residual service life of engineering parts exposed to thermal fatigue makes it possible to deal with economic and safety issues in power plants. The aim of this study is to analyze a fatigue crack initiation and propagation in A321 stainless steel bodies subjected to repeated thermal shocks. For this purpose, various methods of crack propagation monitoring were used. The first stage of experiments included mechanical cyclic loading of specimens with the central notch at fixed temperatures ranging from 20 °C to 410 °C. The crack growth rate was only minimally influenced by temperature in this case. Thermal loading of the same specimens with ΔT varying from 150 °C to 340 °C showed very rapid crack initiation in the notches and its asymmetric growth. Metallographic and fractographic analyses of failed specimens were carried out after 1000, 3000 and 6000 thermal cycles. The comparison of the fracture surface micromorphology confirmed the similarity in the mechanism of the thermal and mechanical fatigue crack growth. Stress analysis using the finite element method consisting of transient thermal and mechanical solutions was performed in order to simulate the experiments. Thermal fatigue crack growth assessment was carried out on the basis of the experiments and the computed thermally induced stress intensity factors. This model successfully confirms the discussed analogy of thermal and mechanical stress induced damage. ► A fatigue crack initiation and propagation in A321 stainless steel was analyzed. ► Mechanical and thermal experiments were performed, simulated also by FEM. ► Similarity in the mechanism of thermal and mechanical fatigue crack growth found. ► Application of the Paris model for the thermal cycling confirmed.