Investigations of Metallurgical Differences in AISI 347 and Their Influence on Deformation and Transformation Behaviour and Resulting Fatigue Life

Due to variations in chemical composition and production processes, homonymous austenitic stainless steels can differ significantly regarding their initial microstructure, metastability, and thus, their fatigue behavior. Microstructural investigations and fatigue tests have been performed in order to evaluate this aspect. Three different batches and production forms of nominally one type of steel AISI 347 were investigated under monotonic tensile tests and cyclic loading under total strain and stress control in low and high cycle fatigue regimes, respectively. The deformation induced α’-martensite formation was investigated globally by means of in situ magnetic measurements and locally using optical light microscopy of color etching of micrographs. The investigation showed that the chemical composition and the different production processes influence the material behavior. In fatigue tests, a higher metastability and thus a higher level of deformation induced α’-martensite pronounced cyclic hardening, resulting in significantly greater endurable stresses in total strain-controlled tests and an increase in fatigue life in stress-controlled tests. For applications of non-destructive-testing, detailed knowledge of a component’s metastability is required. In less metastable batches and for lower stress levels, α’-martensite primarily formed at the plasticization zone of a crack. Furthermore, the formation and nucleation points of α’-martensite were highly dependent on grain size and the presence of δ-ferrite. This study provides valuable insights into the different material behavior of three different batches with the same designation, i.e., AISI 347, due to different manufacturing processes and differences in the chemical composition, metastability, and microstructure.