EFFECT OF DYNAMIC STRAIN AGING ON LOW CYCLE FATIGUE BEHAVIOUR OF 18-8 AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEEL

Studies were made of the symmetric tensile-compressive low cycle fatigue behaviour and the influence of dynamic strain aging(DSA)pre-treatment of 18-8 austenitic stainless steel. Within the testing amplitude range of strain.±0.5 % to±1.5 %,the three processes of cyclic hardening,cyclic saturation and cyclic softening were observed.In the same amplitude of strain,the peak stress of the samples pre-treated by DSA is higher than that of solid-solu- tion and cold working pre-treatment,but no remarkable differences of the fatigue lives of them were found.TEM observation shows that the uniform and stable dislocation networks with high density form after DSA pre-treatment,which increases the cyclic peak stress.The cyclic softening results from the low dislocation density and elongated cell structure with low energy.