Effect of Internal Support on the Tensile Properties and Fracture Mode of 304 Stainless Steel Thin-Walled Tubes

Steel–tube composite structures contain multiple tubular components under tension. The enhancement of the mechanical properties of tubes under ultimate operating conditions is crucial for improving structural safety. In this study, 110 pieces of 304 stainless steel thin-walled tubes (SSTWTs) under five internal support conditions are investigated. The ultimate tensile strength, ultimate extension, and fracture energy of different groups of specimens are measured to understand the variation mechanism of fracture modes. The elastic modulus of tube filler is treated as a variable to establish a uniaxial tensile fracture matrix of 304 SSTWTs with different tube fillers and loading rates. The results demonstrate that flexible tube fillers can effectively limit the lateral necking of 304 SSTWTs. Under the middle fracture mode, the maximum increments in the ultimate strength, extension, and fracture energy of tubes are 10.81%, 24.56%, and 35.94%, respectively. Furthermore, as the support rigidity increases, the ultimate strength exhibits an overall increasing trend, while the extension and fracture energy initially increase and then decrease. Overall, this study provides a novel route for enhancing the performance of steel–tube composite structures under ultimate loading conditions, which is of great significance for improving the safety of the structural design and reducing the engineering construction cost.     

Full-Field Temperature Measurement of Stainless Steel Specimens Subjected to Uniaxial Tensile Loading at Various Strain Rates

This article presents a study on the effect of strain rate, specimen orientation, and plastic strain on the value and distribution of the temperature of dog-bone 1 mm-thick specimens during their deformation in uniaxial tensile tests. Full-field image correlation and infrared thermography techniques were used. A titanium-stabilised austenitic 321 stainless steel was used as test materials. The dog-bone specimens used for uniaxial tensile tests were cut along the sheet metal rolling direction and three strain rates were considered: 4 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹, 8 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹ and 16 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹. It was found that increasing the strain rate resulted in the intensification of heat generation. High-quality regression models (Ra > 0.9) developed for the austenitic 321 steel revealed that sample orientation does not play a significant role in the heat generation when the sample is plastically deformed. It was found that at the moment of formation of a necking at the highest strain rate, the maximum sample temperature increased more than four times compared to the initial temperature. A synergistic effect of the strain hardening exponent and yield stress revealed that heat is generated more rapidly towards small values of strain hardening exponent and yield stress.     

Resistance of Aluminide Coatings on Austenitic Stainless Steel in a Nitriding Atmosphere

A new slurry cementation method was used to produce silicide-aluminide protective coatings on austenitic stainless steel 1.4541. The slurry cementation processes were carried out at temperatures of 800 and 1000 °C for 2 h with and without an additional oxidation process at a temperature of 1000 °C for 5 min. The microstructure and thickness of the coatings were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The intention was to produce coatings that would increase the heat resistance of the steel in a nitriding atmosphere. For this reason, the produced coatings were subjected to gas nitriding at a temperature of 550–570 °C in an atmosphere containing from 40 to 60% of ammonia. The nitriding was carried out using four time steps: 16, 51, 124, and 200 h, and microstructural observations using SEM were performed after each step. Analysis of the chemical composition of the aluminide coatings and reference sample was performed using wavelength (WDS) and energy (EDS) dispersive X-ray microanalysis, and phase analysis was carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The resistance of the aluminide coatings in the nitriding atmosphere was found to depend strongly on the phase composition of the coating. The greatest increase in resistance to gas corrosion under nitriding atmosphere conditions was achieved using a manufacturing temperature of 1000 °C.     

High Temperature Fatigue of Aged Heavy Section Austenitic Stainless Steels

This work investigates two austenitic stainless steels, Sanicro 25 which is a candidate for high temperature heavy section components of future power plants and Esshete 1250 which is used as a reference material. The alloys were subjected to out-of-phase (OP) thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) testing under strain-control in the temperature range of 100 ∘C to 650 ∘C. Both unaged and aged (650 ∘C, 3000 h) TMF specimens were tested to simulate service degradation resulting from long-term usage. The scanning electron microscopy methods electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used to analyse and discuss active failure and deformation mechanisms. The Sanicro 25 results show that the aged specimens suffered increased plastic straining and shorter TMF-life compared to the unaged specimens. The difference in TMF-life of the two test conditions was attributed to an accelerated microstructural evolution that provided decreased the effectiveness for impeding dislocation motion. Ageing did not affect the OP-TMF life of the reference material, Esshete 1250. However, the structural stability and its resistance for cyclic deformation was greatly reduced due to coarsening and cracking of the strengthening niobium carbide precipitates. Sanicro 25 showed the higher structural stability during OP-TMF testing compare with the reference material.     

The Corrosion Susceptibility of 304L Stainless Steel Exposed to Crevice Environments

The present study focuses on the corrosion behavior of 304L stainless steel in crevice corrosion environments. The specimen with a salt deposit of 0.1 g/m² was assembled with a crevice former made of Poly-tetra fluoroethylene (PTFE) to make a test device. The assembled test devices were kept at the ambient temperature of 45 °C in combination with a relative humidity of 45%, 55%, and 70%. After testing for 5000 h, the corroded area of the specimen exposed to 70% humidity was three times larger than that subjected to 45% humidity. For the specimen sustaining a tensile force, the crack growth rate was approximately 1.4 mm/year at the stress level of 300 MPa in a crevice corrosion environment with 0.1 g/m² of sea salt deposited on the surface. The small portion of intergranular cracking occurred at the surface due to the existed strain on the surface. As cracks propagate in a grain, the grain undergoes a greater localized deformation, and some secondary cracks would develop inside the grain; transgranular cracking was vigorous due to the path corrosion that nucleated at the slip steps.     

Stress Corrosion Cracking of an Austenitic Stainless Steel in Nitrite-Containing Chloride Solutions

This article describes the susceptibility of 316L stainless steel to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) in a nitrite-containing chloride solution. Slow strain rate testing (SSRT) in 30 wt. % MgCl₂ solution established SCC susceptibility, as evidenced by post-SSRT fractography. Addition of nitrite to the chloride solution, which is reported to have inhibitive influence on corrosion of stainless steels, was found to increase SCC susceptibility. The susceptibility was also found to increase with nitrite concentration. This behaviour is explained on the basis of the passivation and pitting characteristics of 316L steel in chloride solution.     

Peculiarities of DRX in a Highly-Alloyed Austenitic Stainless Steel

The features of discontinuous dynamic recrystallization (DRX) in a highly-alloyed austenitic stainless steel were studied at temperatures of 800 °C to 1100 °C. Hot deformation accompanied by DRX was characterized by an activation energy of 415 kJ/mol. The frequency of the sequential DRX cycles depended on the deformation conditions; and the largest fraction of DRX grains with small grain orientation spread below 1° was observed at a temperature of around 1000 °C and a strain rate of about 10⁻³ s⁻¹. The following power law relationships were obtained for DRX grain size (D_DRX) and dislocation density (ρ) vs. temperature-compensated strain rate (Z) or peak flow stress (σ_P): D_DRX ~ Z^−0.25, ρ ~ Z^0.1, σ_P ~ D_DRX^−0.9, σ_P ~ ρ^1.4. The latter, i.e., σ_P ~ ρ^1.4, was valid in the flow stress range below 300 MPa and changed to σ_P ~ ρ^0.5 on increasing the stress. The obtained dependencies suggest a unique power law function between the dislocation density and the DRX grain size with an exponent of −0.5.     

Tensile Properties of 21-6-9 Austenitic Stainless Steel Built Using Laser Powder-Bed Fusion

Alloy 21-6-9 is an austenitic stainless steel with high strength, thermal stability at high temperatures, and retained toughness at cryogenic temperatures. This type of steel has been used for aerospace applications for decades, using traditional manufacturing processes. However, limited research has been conducted on this alloy manufactured using laser powder-bed fusion (LPBF). Therefore, in this work, a design of experiment (DOE) was performed to obtain optimized process parameters with regard to low porosity. Once the optimized parameters were established, horizontal and vertical blanks were built to investigate the mechanical properties and potential anisotropic behavior. As this alloy is exposed to elevated temperatures in industrial applications, the effect of elevated temperatures (room temperature and 750 °C) on the tensile properties was investigated. In this work, it was shown that alloy 21-6-9 could be built successfully using LPBF, with good properties and a density of 99.7%, having an ultimate tensile strength of 825 MPa, with an elongation of 41%, and without any significant anisotropic behavior.     

Charpy Impact Behavior of a Novel Stainless Steel Powder Wire Mesh Composite Porous Plate

A novel powder wire mesh composite porous plate (PWMCPP) was fabricated with 304 stainless steel powders and wire mesh as raw materials by vacuum solid-state sintering process using self-developed composite rolling mill of powder and wire mesh. The effects of different mesh volume fractions, mesh diameters, and sintering temperatures on the pore structure and Charpy impact properties of PWMCPPs were studied. The results show that PWMCPPs have different shapes and sizes of micropores. Impact toughness of PWMCPPs decreases with increasing wire mesh volume fraction, and increases first and then decreases with increasing wire mesh diameter, and increases with increasing sintering temperature. Among them, the sintering temperature has the most obvious effect on the impact toughness of PWMCPPs, when the sintering temperature increased from 1160 °C to 1360 °C, the impact toughness increased from 39.54 J/cm² to 72.95 J/cm², with an increased ratio of 84.5%. The tearing between layers, the fracture of the metallurgical junction, and the fracture of wire mesh are the main mechanisms of impact fractures of the novel PWMCPPs.     

Experimental Study of the Post-Fire Mechanical and Material Response of Cold-Worked Austenitic Stainless Steel Reinforcing Bar

This paper is concerned with the behaviour of stainless steel reinforcing bar following exposure to elevated temperatures from a fire, followed by subsequent cooling. Stainless steel-reinforced concrete is an increasingly popular solution for structural applications which require corrosion resistance, excellent mechanical properties, and long life cycles with little maintenance. In addition, although stainless steel reinforcement has a higher initial cost compared with traditional carbon steel bars, the overall life cycle costs are likely to be quite similar, owing to the lack of maintenance required for stainless steel materials. There is no information available in the literature on the post-fire properties of austenitic stainless steel reinforcement, although these data are essential for any engineer who wishes to study the structural integrity of a reinforced concrete component or system following a fire. Accordingly, this paper presents a detailed discussion and analysis from the results of a series of laboratory experiments on three grades of austenitic stainless steel reinforcement following various levels of temperature exposure and also different cooling rates. Both the mechanical and metallurgical properties are examined, and the behaviour is compared to that of B500B carbon steel reinforcement. It is shown that the stainless steel bars retained their mechanical properties under the majority of the scenarios examined and to a greater degree than traditional materials. This is important for the rehabilitation and salvage of existing reinforced concrete structures following a fire and also to avoid unnecessary demolition and replacement.     

Oxidation Damage Evolution in Low-Cycle Fatigue Life of Niobium-Stabilized Austenitic Stainless Steel

Austenitic stainless steel is a vital material in various industries, with excellent heat and corrosion resistance, and is widely used in high-temperature environments as a component for internal combustion engines of transportation vehicles or power plant piping. These components or structures are required to be durable against severe load conditions and oxidation damage in high-temperature environments during their service life. In this regard, in particular, oxidation damage and fatigue life are very important influencing factors, while existing studies have focused on materials and fracture behavior. In order to ensure the fatigue life of austenitic stainless steel, therefore, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of the fracture process with microstructural change including oxidation damage according to the temperature condition. In this work, low-cycle fatigue tests were performed at various temperatures to determine the oxidation damage together with the fatigue life of austenitic stainless steel containing niobium. The characteristics of oxidation damage were analyzed through microstructure observations including scanning electron microscope, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and the X-ray diffraction patterns. In addition, a unified low-cycle fatigue life model coupled with the fracture mechanism-based lifetime and the Neu-Sehitoglu model for considering the influence of damage by oxidation was proposed. After the low-cycle fatigue tests at temperatures of 200–800 °C and strain amplitudes of 0.4% and 0.5%, the accuracy of the proposed model was verified by comparing the test results with the predicted fatigue life, and the validity by using the oxidation damage parameters for Mar-M247 was confirmed through sensitivity analysis of the parameters applied in the oxidation damage model. As a result, the average thickness of the oxide layer and the penetration length of the oxide intrusion were predicted with a mean error range of 14.7% and 13%, respectively, and the low-cycle fatigue life was predicted with a ±2 factor accuracy at the measurement temperatures under all experimental conditions.     

Influence of the Interlayer Temperature on Structure and Properties of Wire and Arc Additive Manufactured Duplex Stainless Steel Product

WAAM (wire and arc additive manufacturing) is becoming an increasingly popular method to produce components from metals, which are usually not so suitable for conventional production methods. One of the good examples is duplex stainless steels (DSSs), which are quite complex for welding and machining. Excessive ferrite amount is a common problem for them and controlling an interlayer temperature could offer a solution. However, using too low interlayer temperature will slow down the whole process and compromise one of the WAAM’s main advantages—the high productivity. The aim of this study is to find the relationship between interlayer temperature and process duration and to determine the influence of the interlayer temperature on product structure and other properties. Three samples (walls) were made using different interlayer temperatures (50 °C, 100 °C and 150 °C) and they were tested to analyze their surface texture, chemical composition, ferrite amount, the appearance of porosity and the hardness. Ferrite amount was higher and there was more porosity on lower interlayer temperatures, while there is no significant difference between surface texture and chemical composition for the samples. Considering the fact that higher interlayer temperatures provide a faster process, they should be preferred to produce duplex stainless steel products.     

High Temperature Dry Tribological Behavior of Nb-Microalloyed Bearing Steel 100Cr6

100Cr6 steel is one of the most widely used bearing steels and a representative of first-generation bearing steel. Many engineering applications require rolling bearings to run at a high temperature. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the high temperature properties of 100Cr6 steel. In this paper, the effect of Nb on high temperature dry tribological behavior, including worn surface and friction coefficient, was analyzed by a wear test when Nb content was 0.018% and 0.040%. The results show that the microstructure is refined gradually, the hardness is improved, and wear volume decreases by 31.8% at most with the increase of Nb content. At 50 °C, the friction coefficient of 100Cr6 steel can be reduced by adding a small amount of Nb, but this effect will be weakened if the content of Nb is too high. In addition, excess Nb increases the hard precipitation of NbC, which aggravates the abrasive wear and leads to the increase in the depth of the worn surface. At 125 °C, the effect of Nb on tribological properties is weaker. With the increase of temperature, the steel substrate softens, and the oxide particles increase, which aggravates the abrasive wear and oxidation wear and makes the wear volume increase significantly.     

Temperature Dependence of Deformation Behaviors in High Manganese Austenitic Steel for Cryogenic Applications

The deformation structure and its contribution to strain hardening of a high manganese austenitic steel were investigated after tensile deformation at 298 K, 77 K and 4 K by means of electron backscatter diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, exhibiting a strong dependence of strain hardening and deformation structure on deformation temperature. It was demonstrated that sufficient twinning indeed provides a high and stable strain hardening capacity, leading to a simultaneous increase in strength and ductility at 77 K compared with the tensile deformation at 298 K. Moreover, although the SFE of the steel is ~34.4 mJ/m² at 4 K, sufficient twinning was not observed, indicating that the mechanical twinning is hard to activate at 4 K. However, numerous planar dislocation arrays and microbands can be observed, and these substructures may be a reason for multi-peak strain hardening behaviors at 4 K. They can also provide certain strain hardening capacity, and a relatively high total elongation of ~48% can be obtained at 4 K. In addition, it was found that the yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) linearly increases with the lowering of the deformation temperature from 298 K to 4 K, and the increment in YS and UTS was estimated to be 2.13 and 2.43 MPa per 1 K reduction, respectively.     

Effect of Phase Transformation on Stress Corrosion Behavior of Additively Manufactured Austenitic Stainless Steel Produced by Directed Energy Deposition

The present study aims to evaluate the stress corrosion behavior of additively manufactured austenitic stainless steel produced by the wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) process. This was examined in comparison with its counterpart, wrought alloy, by electrochemical analysis in terms of potentiodynamic polarization and impedance spectroscopy and by slow strain rate testing (SSRT) in a corrosive environment. The microstructure assessment was performed using optical and scanning electron microscopy along with X-ray diffraction analysis. The obtained results indicated that in spite of the inherent differences in microstructure and mechanical properties between the additively manufactured austenitic stainless steel and its counterpart wrought alloy, their electrochemical performance and stress corrosion susceptibility were similar. The corrosion attack in the additively manufactured alloy was mainly concentrated at the interface between the austenitic matrix and the secondary ferritic phase. In the case of the counterpart wrought alloy with a single austenitic phase, the corrosion attack was manifested by uniform pitting evenly scattered at the external surface. Both alloys showed ductile failure in the form of “cap and cone” fractures in post-SSRT experiments in corrosive environment.     

Effect of Annealing Temperature on the Mechanical and Corrosion Behavior of a Newly Developed Novel Lean Duplex Stainless Steel

The effect of annealing temperature (1000–1150 °C) on the microstructure evolution, mechanical properties, and pitting corrosion behavior of a newly developed novel lean duplex stainless steel with 20.53Cr-3.45Mn-2.08Ni-0.17N-0.31Mo was studied by means of optical metallographic microscopy (OMM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), magnetic force microscopy (MFM), scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy (SKPFM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), uniaxial tensile tests (UTT), and potentiostatic critical pitting temperature (CPT). The results showed that tensile and yield strength, as well as the pitting corrosion resistance, could be degraded with annealing temperature increasing from 1000 up to 1150 °C. Meanwhile, the elongation at break reached the maximum of 52.7% after annealing at 1050 °C due to the effect of martensite transformation induced plasticity (TRIP). The localized pitting attack preferentially occurred at ferrite phase, indicating that the ferrite phase had inferior pitting corrosion resistance as compared to the austenite phase. With increasing annealing temperature, the pitting resistance equivalent number (PREN) of ferrite phase dropped, while that of the austenite phase rose. Additionally, it was found that ferrite possessed a lower Volta potential than austenite phase. Moreover, the Volta potential difference between ferrite and austenite increased with the annealing temperature, which was well consistent with the difference of PREN.     

Effect of Solutionizing Duration and Temperature on the Electrochemical Corrosion and Pitting Resistance of Cold-Rolled Super Austenitic Stainless Steel

The solution annealing of cold rolled super austenitic stainless steel UN08029 alloy was carried out to investigate the role of solutionizing duration and temperature on the electrochemical corrosion and pitting resistance of the alloy. Linear polarization, cyclic potentiodynamic, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques were used to evaluate the electrochemical behavior in 3.5% NaCl solution. The microstructural analysis of the solutionized samples revealed the formation of uniform equiaxed grains from elongated columnar grains, which size increases with duration and temperature. The charge transfer resistance shows an increasing corrosion protectiveness of 46 to 60% with increasing solutionizing duration from 30 to 120 min. Similarly, a 45, 52, 60, and 26% improvement in the corrosion performance was obtained for sample solutionized at 1000, 1100, 1200, and 1300 °C, respectively. In general, the solutionized samples demonstrated improved resistance over the as-received alloy, and this behavior increases with solutionizing duration and temperature. Though the pitting potential drops below that of the as-received alloy, the hysteresis loop revealed that the solutionized samples are less prone to pitting damage, and the sample solutionized at 1200 °C for 120 min exhibited optimum pitting corrosion resistance. The microstructural influence on corrosion was also discussed.     

High-Temperature Tensile and Creep Behavior in a CrMoV Steel and Weld Metal

The 2.25Cr1Mo0.25V steel is a vanadium-modified 2.25Cr1Mo steel and is being widely used in the manufacture of heavy-wall hydrogenation reactors in petrochemical plants. However, the harsh service environment requires a thorough understanding of high-temperature tensile and creep behaviors of 2.25Cr1Mo0.25V steel and its weld for ensuring the safety and reliability of hydrogenation reactors. In this work, the high-temperature tensile and creep behaviors of base metal (BM) and weld metal (WM) in a 2.25Cr1Mo0.25V steel weldment used for a hydrogenation reactor were studied experimentally, paying special attention to its service temperature range of 350–500 °C. The uniaxial tensile tests under different temperatures show that the WM has higher strength and lower ductility than those of BM, due to the finer grain size in the WM. At the same time, the short-term creep tests at 550 °C reveal that the WM has a higher creep resistance than that of BM. Moreover, the creep damage mechanisms were clarified by observing the fracture surface and microstructures of crept specimens with the aid of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that the creep damage mechanisms of both BM and WM are the initiation and growth of creep cavities at the second phase particles. Results from this work indicate that the mismatch in the high-temperature tensile strength, ductility, and creep deformation rate in 2.25Cr1Mo0.25V steel weldment needs to be considered for the design and integrity assessment of hydrogenation reactors.     

Influence of Size on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of an AISI 304L Stainless Steel—A Comparison between Bulk and Fibers

In this work, the mechanical properties and microstructural features of an AISI 304L stainless steel in two presentations, bulk and fibers, were systematically studied in order to establish the relationship among microstructure, mechanical properties, manufacturing process and effect on sample size. The microstructure was analyzed by XRD, SEM and TEM techniques. The strength, Young’s modulus and elongation of the samples were determined by tensile tests, while the hardness was measured by Vickers microhardness and nanoindentation tests. The materials have been observed to possess different mechanical and microstructural properties, which are compared and discussed.     

Temperature Dependence of Fracture Characteristics of Variously Heat-Treated Grades of Ultra-High-Strength Steel: Experimental and Modelling

The temperature dependence of tensile characteristics and fracture toughness of the standardly heat-treated low-alloyed steel OCHN3MFA along with three additionally heat-treated grades was experimentally studied. In the temperature range of 〈−196; 22〉 °C, all the additional heat treatments transferred the standard steel from a high- to ultra-high strength levels even with improved tensile ductility characteristics. This could be explained by a reduction of the inclusion content, refinement of the martensitic blocks, ductile retained austenite content, and homogenization of the shape ratio of martensitic laths as revealed by metallographic, X-ray, and EBSD techniques. On the other hand, the values of the fracture toughness of all grades were found to be comparable in the whole temperature range as the cause of a high stress triaxiality in the pre-cracked Charpy V-notch samples. The values of the fracture toughness of the standard steel grade could be predicted well using the fracture model proposed by Pokluda et al. based on the tensile characteristics. Such a prediction failed in the case of additionally heat-treated grades due to the different temperature dependence of the fracture mechanisms occurring in the tensile and fracture-toughness tests. While the tensile samples fractured in a ductile-dimple mode at all temperatures, the fracture-toughness specimens exhibited a transition from the ductile to quasi-brittle fracture mode with decreasing temperature. This transition could be interpreted in terms of a transfer from the model proposed by Rice and Johnson to the model of Tvergaard and Hutchinson.