Influence of ultrasonic cavitation on surface residual stresses in AISI 304 stainless steel

The effect of ultrasonic cavitation in water on residual stress changes in AlSl 304 stainless steel has been investigated. Studies indicate that high-intensity ultrasonic cavitation introduces a very high compressive residual stress at the surface (due to work-hardening) even for short durations of exposure at ambient temperatures. With increased exposure, the stresses become more compressive; however, they tend to reach a saturation value. Different combinations of temperature, time and cavitation intensity were tried out and the best effects were noticed for a treatment temperature of 5 °C. 304 stainless steel was chosen for the present study on account of its amenability to strong work-hardening. The test specimen was attached to the tip of an ultrasonic vibrator and immersed in the cavitating liquid, i.e. water. However, even in situations where the specimen was kept in a stand-off position close to the vibrator tip (with water in between) similar effects were noticed. The maximum depth of hardening was found to be about 70 m. During this process, there was also a mild roughening of the surface. An incidental observation pertains to the formation of both and martensites at the surface detectable by X-ray diffractometer recordings for specific conditions of cavitation treatment. The required high intensities of vibration in this study were obtained through an in-house built highpower ultrasonic generator working at a frequency around 20 kHz.     

Influence of pad span on fretting fatigue behaviour of AISI 304 stainless steel

The present work deals with the influence of pad span on fretting fatigue behaviour of AISI 304 stainless steel. Relative slip is one of the three primary variables influencing fretting fatigue behaviour. The relative slip can be modified by changing the pad span and/or cyclic stress. In the present study, the effect of relative slip was studied at different cyclic stress levels and by using fretting pads with three different pad span values (15, 20 and 30 mm). The relative slip increased with an increase in pad span and cyclic stress. Samples tested with fretting pads having longer pad span (30 mm) exhibited longer lives. Though the specimens tested with pads having longer pad span experienced higher frictional stress and tangential force coefficient compared with those tested with pads having smaller pad span (15 or 20 mm), the relative slip values were larger in the former. Due to larger relative slip values it was assumed that small cracks initiated by fretting fatigue would have been worn away due to wear damage. Due to this the specimens tested with pads having longer pad span exhibited enhanced fretting fatigue lives. More deformation-induced martensite formed in the samples tested with pads having longer pad span owing to longer lives.     

Fatigue behaviour of AISI 304 steel to AISI 4340 steel welded by friction welding

In the presented study, The weldability of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel to AISI 4340 steel joined by friction welding in different rotational speeds and fatigue behaviour of friction-welded samples were investigated. Tension tests were applied to welded parts to obtain the strength of the joints. The welding zones were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and analyzed by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The Vıckers microhardness distributions in welding zone were determined. Fatigue tests were performed using a rotational bending fatigue test machine and the fatigue strength has been analysed drawing S-N curves and critically observing fatigue fracture surfaces of the tested samples. The experimental results indicate that mechanical properties and microstructural features are affected significantly by rotation speed and the fatigue strength of friction-welded samples decrease due to chromium carbide precipitation in welding zone with increasing rotation speed in choosen conditions.     

Influence of heat treatments on toughness and sensitization of a Ti-alloyed supermartensitic stainless steel

Supermartensitic steels are a new class of martensitic stainless steels developed to obtain higher corrosion resistance and better toughness through the reduction of carbon content, and addition of Ni and Mo. They were developed to more critical applications or to improve the performance obtained with conventional grades AISI 410, 420, and 431. In this study, the influences of the tempering parameters on the microstructure, mechanical properties (hardness and toughness), and sensitization of a Ti-alloyed supermartensitc stainless steel were investigated. The material showed temper embrittlement in the 400–600 °C range, as detected by low temperature (−46 °C) impact tests. The degree of sensitization measured by double loop reactivation potentiodynamic tests increased continuously with the increase of tempering temperature above 400 °C. Healing due to Cr diffusion at high tempering temperatures was not observed. Double tempered specimens showed high amounts (>20%) of reverse austenite but their toughness were similar to specimens single tempered at 625 and 650 °C.     

Evolution of dynamic recrystallisation in AISI 304 stainless steel

Abstract

The nucleation and development of dynamic recrystallisation (DRX) has been studied via hot torsion testing of AISI 304 stainless steel. The DRX behaviour was investigated with microstructural analysis and slope changes of flow stress curves. The characteristics of serrated grain boundaries observed by SEM, electron backscattered diffraction and TEM indicated that the nucleated DRX grain size was similar to that of the bulged part of the original grain boundary. The DRX of the alloy was nucleated and developed by strain induced grain boundary migration and by the necklace mechanism. Before the steady state in the flow curve at 1000 ° C and 0.5 s^-1, the dynamically recrystallised grains did not remain a constant size and gradually grew to the size of fully DRX grains at steady state (30 μm). The calculation of the grain size was based on X _DRX (volume fraction of dynamically recrystallisation) under the assumption that the nucleated DRX grains grow to the steady state continuously. It was found that the calculated grain size of the alloy was good agreement with that of the observed grain size. It is expected that a fine grained steel can be obtained by controlling hot deformation conditions on the basis of newly developed equations for predicting DRX behaviour.     

Fretting wear of nitrogen-implanted AISI 304 stainless steel

Fretting wear resistance of nitrogen-implanted AISI 304 stainless steel was measured and compared to that of unimplanted steel. After 5 × 10³ cycles, unimplanted steel revealed severe damage on non-slip area and adhesive-type wear on microslip region whereas nitrogen-implanted stainless steel was still undamaged. The improved fretting wear resistance is explained to be due to the increased load carrying capacity and decreased adhesion of nitrogen-implanted steel.     

Abnormal grain growth in AISI 304L stainless steel

The microstructural evolution during abnormal grain growth (secondary recrystallization) in 304L stainless steel was studied in a wide range of annealing temperatures and times. At relatively low temperatures, the grain growth mode was identified as normal. However, at homologous temperatures between 0.65 (850 °C) and 0.7 (900 °C), the observed transition in grain growth mode from normal to abnormal, which was also evident from the bimodality in grain size distribution histograms, was detected to be caused by the dissolution/coarsening of carbides. The microstructural features such as dispersed carbides were characterized by optical metallography, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, and microhardness. Continued annealing to a long time led to the completion of secondary recrystallization and the subsequent reappearance of normal growth mode. Another instance of abnormal grain growth was observed at homologous temperatures higher than 0.8, which may be attributed to the grain boundary faceting/defaceting phenomenon. It was also found that when the size of abnormal grains reached a critical value, their size will not change too much and the grain growth behavior becomes practically stagnant.     

The edge-cracking of AISI 304 stainless steel during hot-rolling

The hot-rolled plates of AISI 304 stainless steel, containing edge cracks of different intensities, were examined. The austenitic matrix of the steel contained small amounts of ferrite inhomogeneously distributed across the width and the thickness of the plate. A correlation was found between ferrite content and edge cracking: the higher the ferrite content the longer the edge cracks. Among the chemical elements present in the steel, the most critical effect on ferrite content was exerted by carbon and nitrogen. The longest edge cracks were observed for plates with the lowest content of carbon and nitrogen. A possible contribution of steel chemistry and heating temperature to changes in the steel phase composition and the probability of edge cracking is discussed.     

The thermal conductivity of AISI 304L stainless steel

A compilation and critical analysis of the thermal conductivity () of AISI 304 stainless steel (SS) between 100 and 1707 K has been given in the literature. The author represented his recommended values of by an inflection in the A versus temperature relationship between 300 and 500 K. Because a physical mechanism had not been identified that would produce such a temperature dependence in of 304 SS, interest was generated in the possible existence of an as yet undiscovered phenomenon that might cause such an inflection. Consequently, experimental verification of the inflection was sought. The present paper presents recent measurements of , the electrical resistivity, and the absolute Seebeck coefficient of 304L SS from 300 to 1000 K and of the thermal diffusivity () from 297 to 423 K. The values computed from the a measurements were within ± 1.6% of the directly measured An inflection was not observed in the temperature dependence of between 300 and 500 K. After careful evaluation and because a physical mechanism still has not been identified which would produce such an inflection, the authors conclude that the inflection in the vs T relationship reported in the literature was caused by the data analysis technique.     

Friction stir welding of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel

The objective of this work is to demonstrate the feasibility of friction stir welding (FSW) AISI 304 austenitic stainless steels. The tool used was formed of a tungsten‐based alloy. The specimens were welded on an 11 kW vertical milling machine. Defect‐free welds were produced on 2.5 mm plates of hot‐rolled AISI 304 austenitic stainless steels at travel speeds ranging from 40 to 100 mm/min with a constant rotating speed of 1000 rpm. Tensile strengths and hardness values of the weld interface were determined and microstructure features of these samples were investigated.     

A comparison of sensitization kinetics in 304 and 316 stainless steels

The effects of tensile and cold rolling strain (up to 40%) over a range of grain sizes ranging from 300 m to 10 m on sensitization (and desensitization) were observed and compared for 304 and 316 stainless steel having a constant carbon content of 0.05%; at 670°C. Rapid sensitization-desensitization was observed for both materials at the smallest grain size, and plots of degree of sensitization (DOS) data with time, temperature, and tensile strain coupled with chromium diffusivity data for 304 stainless steel allowed activation energies to be calculated from corresponding Arrhenius plots utilizing supplemental data from Beltran, et al. [1] at 625°C and 775°C. Values of 1.9 and 2 kcal/mol were found for unstrained and 20% strained samples for 11 m grain size while corresponding values at 175 m grain size were 55 and 32 kcal/mol respectively. Activation energies for unstrained and 10% strained 316 stainless steel for 135 m grain size were found to be 76 and 64 kcal/mol, respectively. Sensitization was more rapid for cold-rolling versus tensile straining in both stainless steels, and there was no detectable sensitization for the largest grain size regime of the 316 stainless steel up to 10 h aging time at 670°C.     

Low-cycle fatigue behaviour of notched AISI 304 stainless steel specimens

Low-cyclic fatigue tests were conducted on semi-circle notched and V-notched specimens made of AISI 304 stainless steel. Extensive scanning electron microscopic examination of the fracture surface was also carried out to correlate the microscopic fracture surface features with the macroscopic fatigue loading parameter for this steel. The elastic-plastic fatigue test results indicated a noticeable cyclic hardening phenomenon and also a great influence of the maximum cyclic stress, the mean stress and the notch geometry on both the fatigue life and the fatigue behaviour process. Using careful sensitivity and regression analysis correlations between the macroscopic fatigue parameters on the one hand and the macroscopic and the microscopic fracture surface features on the other, these correlations are presented and clearly documented and discussed for the two notch geometries investigated.     

Fracture toughness behaviour in AISI 4130 steel of electron beam welding

This investigation was undertaken to evaluate if fracture toughness and weld porosity could be improved to satisfied characteristics using various welding speeds and electron beam oscillation patterns. Porosity increases in general as welding speed increases. Correlations have been found between fracture toughness and weld porosity. The fracture toughness improved with reducing a large amount of weld porosity, due to proper beam deflection patterns. One of the interesting results indicated that the existence of a little base porosity could absorb more energy due to local plastic deformation and this fact could explain the increasing of fracture toughness at those situations.     

Fracture failure analysis of AISI 304L stainless steel shaft

Fracture failure analysis of an agitator shaft in a large vessel is investigated in the present work. This analysis methodology focused on fracture surface examination and finite element method (FEM) simulation using Abaqus software for stress analysis. The results show that the steel shaft failed due to inadequate fillet radius size and more importantly marking defects originated during machining on the shaft. In addition, after visual investigation of the fracture surface, it is concluded that fracture occurred due to torsional–bending fatigue during operation.     

Economical and ecological cryogenic machining of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel

 While it is a clean alternative to conventional machining using environmentally polluting cutting oils and emulsions, cryogenic machining using liquid nitrogen has been reported to increase cutting forces and shorten tool life when cutting AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel. This paper presents improved results by using an economical cryogenic cooling approach designed after studying the cryogenic properties of the stainless steel material. By injecting a small amount of liquid nitrogen to the chip–tool interface, but not to the workpiece, this approach yielded a 67% tool-life improvement at 3.82 m/s and a 43% improvement at the medium speed of 3.40 m/s when compared with conventional emulsion cooling. It improved machining productivity and reduced production cost. In this study, different cryogenic machining approaches were compared in the machining test using commercial carbide inserts. The results show the cooling approach is crucial in attaining the benefits of cryogenic machining in cutting stainless steel. Received: 7 February 2000 / Accepted: 30 April 2000     

Stress induced martensite transformation texture in AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel

Abstract

The phenomenological theory of martensitic transformation was applied to a tension induced martensitic transformation in an AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel in order to estimate the transformation texture. Input data were obtained from the published literature. Calculated pole figures were constructed assuming a variant selection process based on Patel and Cohen’s theory, which emphasises that a mechanical component of free energy is the driving force for martensitic transformation at temperatures above martensite start M_s. The results showed a remarkably good match between the calculated and published measured data.     

Investigation of the influential parameters of machining of AISI 304 stainless steel

Austenitic stainless steels are hard materials to machine, due to their high strength, high ductility and low thermal conductivity. The last characteristic results in heat concentration at the tool cutting edge. This paper aims to optimize turning parameters of AISI 304 stainless steel. Turning tests have been performed in three different feed rates (0.2, 0.3, 0.4 mm/rev) at the cutting speeds of 100, 125, 150, 175 and 200 m/min with and without cutting fluid. A design of experiments (DOE) and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) have been made to determine the effects of each parameter on the tool wear and the surface roughness. It is being inferred that cutting speed has the main influence on the flank wear and as it increases to 175 m/min, the flank wear decreases. The feed rate has the most important influence on the surface roughness and as it decreases, the surface roughness also decreases. Also, the application of cutting fluid results in longer tool life and better surface finish.