Development of Fatigue Crack Growth Thresholds for Austenitic Stainless Steels Exposed to Air Environment for ASME Code Section XI

Abstract

Fatigue crack growth thresholds ΔKth define stress intensity factor range below which cracks will not grow. The thresholds ΔKth are useful in industries to determine durability lifetime. Although massive fatigue crack growth experiments for stainless steels in air environment had been reported, the thresholds ΔKth are not codified at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code Section XI, as well as other fitness-for-service (FFS) codes and standards. Based on the investigation of a few FFS codes and review of literature survey of experimental data, the thresholds ΔKth exposed to air environment have been developed for the ASME Code Section XI. A guidance of the thresholds ΔKth for austenitic stainless steels in air at room and high temperatures can be developed as a function of stress ratio R.