Lowcycle fatigue behavior on duplex stainless steels

Stainless steels are used predominantly for their corrosion resistance in moderate to highly aggressive environments. For construction purposes, engineers normally select carbon steel due to low cost, long experience, applicable design rules and a large variety of strength classes. However, different stainless steel types can also provide a very wide range of mechanical properties and they have the advantage of not needing surface protection. Duplex Stainless Steels (DSSs) in particular, are austeno-ferritic steels with twice the mechanical strength of conventional austenitic and ferritic stainless steels and have a potential use in construction. In the early 1980's, a 'second generation' of duplex steels was introduced with better weldability mainly through nitrogen alloying. The most common duplex grade today is the UNS S32205/S31803, which is used in a great number of applications in a wide variety of product forms. This grade was the basis for the development of a 'third generation' of duplex steels. These higher alloys are called super-duplex stainless steels and identified as UNS S32750/S32760. The cyclic hardening-softening response, the cyclic stress-strain curve and the microstructure evolution of a high nitrogen duplex stainless steel S32750 have been evaluated and the results compared with reference to low and medium nitrogen duplex stainless steels, S32205 and S32900 grades, respectively. The beneficial effects of nitrogen on the cyclic properties of most modern alloys have been analyzed in terms of the flow stress components, i.e. the back and the friction stress. A phenomenological model is proposed to explain the influence of nitrogen atoms on the cyclic behavior of these steels.