Stress-induced martensitic transformation in metastable austenitic stainless steels: Effect on fatigue crack growth rate

This paper addresses the influence of cyclic stress-induced martensitic transformation on fatigue crack growth rates in metastable austenitic stainless steels. At low applied stress and mean stress values in AISI type 301 stainless steel, fatigue crack growth rate is substantially retarded due to a cyclic stress-induced γ-α′ and γ-ε martensitic transformation occurring at the crack-tip plastic zone. It is suggested that the transformation products produce a compressive residual stress at the tip of the fatigue crack, which essentially lowers the effective stress intensity and hence retards the fatigue crack growth rate. At high applied stress or mean stress values, fatigue crack growth rates in AISI type 301 steels become almost equal to those of stable AISI type 302 alloy. As the amount of transformed products increases (with an increase in applied or mean stress), the strain-hardening effect brought about by the transformed martensite phase appears to accelerate fatigue crack growth, offsetting the contribution from the compressive residual stress produced by the positive volume change of γ → α′ or ε transformation.