The effect of temperature on low-cycle fatigue behavior of prior cold worked 316L stainless steel

Low-cycle fatigue tests on cold worked 316L stainless steel were carried out at various temperatures from room temperature to 650 °C and tensile tests were conducted on the cold worked and solution-treated materials. At all test temperatures, the cold worked material showed the tendency of higher strength and lower ductility. Following initial cyclic hardening for a few cycles, cyclic softening behavior was observed to dominate until failure occurred during low-cycle fatigue deformation. The softening behavior strongly depends on temperature and strain amplitude. Several life prediction models were examined and it was found that it is important to select a proper life prediction parameter since stress and strain depend strongly on temperature. A phenomenological fatigue life prediction model is proposed to account for the influence of temperature on life. The model is correlated with the experimental results.