Influence of PbBi environment on the low-cycle fatigue behavior of SNS target container materials

The low-cycle fatigue (LCF) behavior of the stainless steel 316L and the 10.5Cr-steel Manet-II was investigated at 260 °C in air and in stagnant lead–bismuth (PbBi). At low-strain levels, the fatigue lives for 316L in PbBi and air were comparable. At total strain amplitudes of 0.50% and higher a weak influence of PbBi was observed. In contrast to 316L, the results of LCF tests for Manet-II in PbBi showed a significant reduction of lifetime for all applied strain amplitudes. In the worst case the cycle number to crack initiation was reduced by a factor of ≈7 compared with the comparable test in air. For the low-strain amplitude of 0.30%, fatigue tests conducted at a frequency of 0.1 Hz had shorter fatigue lives than at a frequency of 1.0 Hz. For Manet-II the crack propagation in PbBi was much faster than in air, and failure immediate followed the formation of the first macroscopic crack.