CREEP-FATIGUE BEHAVIOR OF GRADE 92 STEEL AND ITS PREDICTABILITY

Grade 92 steel is a class of the Creep Strength-Enhanced Ferritic (CSEF) steels developed for use in boilers and piping systems of ultra-supercritical steam fossil power plants. Although creep strength is a primary concern, consideration of the interaction of creep and fatigue damage is also important in evaluating the integrity of components as they will experience a range of cyclic loading. Although some studies have already been made on creep-fatigue behavior of this steel, test data under the conditions of creep damage dominance more relevant to plant evaluation, need to be supplemented. Girth welds often constitute critical locations dominating the integrity of piping systems and their creep-fatigue behavior is also of significant importance. Such a situation prompted the authors to initiate a study aiming at development of an extensive database on creep-fatigue behavior of base metal and welded joints of Grade 92 steel and establishment of an appropriate life estimation procedure. For the period of one and half year, a number of creep-fatigue data have been obtained on the base metal and cross-weld specimens at a wide range of loading conditions. Superiority of the energy-based approach to the conventional time fraction or ductility exhaustion approach for predicting creep-fatigue life was confirmed by their application to these creep-fatigue tests.