1997 Volume 37 Issue 12 Pages 1154-1169
Some recent work on the cyclic deformation and fatigue behaviour of selected ferritic and austenitic steels is reviewed. The steels considered are the ferritic plain carbon steels SAE 1010 and SAE 1045, the martensitically or bainitically hardened roller bearing steel SAE 52100 and metastable austenitic steels of the type AISI 304 L. The review deals with several specific aspects. In particular, experimental data are presented and discussed for the following topics: cyclic deformation (hardening/softening) and its temperature dependence, the cyclic stress-strain behaviour in single- and multiple-step tests and in the incremental step test, the characteristic microstructural changes and dislocation mechanisms, cyclic plasticity and Masing or non-Masing behaviour, some effects of mean stress, dynamic strain ageing phenomena and their effects on fatigue life in stress- and strain-controlled tests and, finally, the enhancement of the monotonic strength and the fatigue resistance of metastable austenitic steels by exploitation of the fatigue-induced martensitic deformation, in particular at low temperatures.
