Fatigue crack propagation under cyclic thermal stress

Structures used at elevated temperature subject to severe cyclic thermal stress. Therefore, accurate prediction procedures for thermal fatigue crack growth should be applied to rationalise component flaw assessment. Fatigue crack propagation tests under thermal stress were carried out using an modified type 316 stainless steel (316FR), which is a candidate material for the fast reactor in Japan. Thermal stress of the tests was generated by cyclically changed temperature distribution through thickness in a plate by induction heating and air-cooling. Numerical analysis was also carried out to examine the applicability of the J integral under cyclic thermal stress. The J integral under elasto-plastic condition under thermal stress is close to the elastically calculated J integral. Prediction by J integral tends to be conservative for deeper cracks, and modification of the J integral value using crack opening ratio gives good agreement with the experimental crack growth.