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On the origin of extraordinary cyclic strengthening of the austenitic stainless steel Sanicro 25 during fatigue at 700 °C

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Abstract

The origin of the extraordinary strengthening of the highly alloyed austenitic stainless steel Sanicro 25 during cyclic loading at 700 °C was investigated by the use of advanced scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). Along with substantial change of the dislocation structure, nucleation of two distinct populations of nanoparticles was revealed. Fully coherent Cu-rich nanoparticles were observed to be homogeneously dispersed with high number density along with nanometer-sized incoherent NbC carbides precipitating on dislocations during cyclic loading. Probe-corrected high-angle annular dark-field STEM imaging was used to characterize the atomic structure of nanoparticles. Compositional analysis was conducted using both electron energy loss spectroscopy and high spatial resolution energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. High-temperature exposure-induced precipitation of spatially dense coherent Cu-rich nanoparticles and strain-induced nucleation of incoherent NbC nanoparticles leads to retardation of dislocation movement. The pinning effects and associated obstacles to the dislocation motion prevent recovery and formation of the localized low-energy cellular structures. As a consequence, the alloy exhibits remarkable cyclic hardening at elevated temperatures.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The present work was conducted in the frame of IPMinfra supported through the project No. LM2015069 and the project CEITEC 2020 No. LQ1601 of MEYS. The support by the project RVO: 68081723 and grant 13-23652S of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic is gratefully acknowledged. MJM acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation under contract #DMR-60050072. BDE acknowledges support from the Center for Emergent Materials: an NSF MRSEC under award number DMR-1420451. The support of the Fulbright Fellowship grant awarded to Milan Heczko by The J. William Fulbright Commission in the Czech Republic is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 43212, USA

    Milan Heczko, Bryan D. Esser & Michael J. Mills

  2. Institute of Physics of Materials, CAS, Brno, 61662, Czech Republic

    Milan Heczko

  3. NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio, 44135, USA

    Timothy M. Smith

  4. Nuclear Physics Institute, CAS, Řež near Prague, 25068, Czech Republic

    Přemysl Beran

  5. Institute of Physics of Materials, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, 61662, Czech Republic

    Veronika Mazánová, Tomáš Kruml & Jaroslav Polák

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  1. Milan Heczko
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  2. Bryan D. Esser
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  3. Timothy M. Smith
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  5. Veronika Mazánová
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  7. Jaroslav Polák
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Correspondence to Milan Heczko.

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Heczko, M., Esser, B.D., Smith, T.M. et al. On the origin of extraordinary cyclic strengthening of the austenitic stainless steel Sanicro 25 during fatigue at 700 °C. Journal of Materials Research 32, 4342–4353 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2017.311

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