Time-dependent ratchetting experiments of SS304 stainless steel

The time-dependent strain cyclic characteristics and ratchetting behaviours of SS304 stainless steel were investigated by uniaxial/multiaxial cyclic loading tests at room and elevated temperatures (350 and 700 °C). The effects of loading rate, peak/valley strain or stress holds, ambient temperature and non-proportional loading path on the cyclic softening/hardening and ratchetting behaviours of the material were discussed. It is shown that: the cyclic deformation of the material presents remarkable time-dependence at room temperature and 700 °C; the cyclic hardening feature and ratchetting strain depend significantly on straining or stressing rate, hold-time, ambient temperature and the non-proportionality of loading path; the time-dependent ratchetting is resulted from the slight opening of hysteresis loop and visco-plasticity together, and the viscosity is a dominating factor at 700 °C; at 350 °C, abnormal rate-dependence and quick shakedown of ratchetting are observed due to the dynamic strain aging of the material at this temperature. Some significant conclusions are obtained, which are useful to construct a constitutive model to describe the time-dependent ratchetting behaviour of the material. It is also stated that the unified visco-plastic constitutive model discussed here cannot provide reasonable simulation to the time-dependent ratchetting at 700 °C, especially to that with certain peak/valley stress hold, since the effect of the high viscosity on time-dependent ratchetting cannot be properly described by using a unified visco-plastic flow rule.