In continuous casting processes, inevitable voids (damage) are generated inside the material. The subsequent forming process of hot flat rolling offers the potential of healing these defects by closing the voids and bonding the internal surfaces. In this paper, different forming conditions from hot flat rolling process were characterized with micromagnetic measurement techniques and the influence of the damage evolution on the fatigue behavior was investigated. To characterize the reduction of voids through hot flat rolling processes, nondestructive testing techniques are required. Therefore, micromagnetic measurements such as Barkhausen noise, incremental permeability, and harmonic analysis were carried out, correlated with the number of voids, and compared with each other. The influence of damage evolution of different forming conditions on the fatigue behavior was characterized based on instrumented constant amplitude and multiple amplitude (load increase) tests. A significant increase in fatigue strength due to the hot flat rolling process, which leads to a reduction in the number of voids, was observed. In addition, the fracture surfaces of the specimens were analyzed in the scanning electron microscope.

Since brazed components are often cyclically loaded in corrosive environments, the corrosion fatigue behaviour of the joints has to be investigated. Fatigue tests of brazed AISI 304L/BNi‐2 joints, relevant for exhaust gas heat exchangers, were performed with specimens in the as‐received condition and after pre‐corrosion according to VDA 230‐214. Additionally, the superimposed corrosion fatigue loading in an exhaust gas condensate was realised using a corrosion cell. Corrosion‐induced and deformation‐induced microstructural changes were metallographically evaluated. The influence of the test frequency from 1 to 150 Hz on the cyclic deformation and damage behaviour was characterised. In a statistical analysis, the fatigue strength of 210 MPa at 2·107 cycles was determined for the as‐received condition with a 50% failure probability. The pre‐corrosion as well as the superimposed loading lead to a reduction of the fatigue strength down to 22%. A novel test strategy is suitable for precise fatigue and corrosion fatigue assessments.

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AISI 347 austenitic steel is, as an example, used in nuclear energy piping systems. Piping filled with superheated steam or cooled water is particularly exposed to high stresses, whereupon local material properties in the pipes can change significantly, especially in the case of additional corrosive influences, leading to aging of the material. In the absence of appropriate information, such local material property variations are currently covered rather blanketly by safety factors set during the design of those components. An increase in qualified information could improve the assessment of the condition of such aged components. As part of the collaborative project “Microstructure-based assessment of the maximum service life of core materials and components subjected to corrosion and fatigue (MiBaLeB)”, the short-time procedure, StrainLife, was developed and validated by several fatigue tests. With this procedure, a complete S–N curve of a material can be determined on the basis of three fatigue tests only, which reduces the effort compared to a conventional approach significantly and is thus ideal for assessing the condition of aged material, where the material is often rare, and a cost-effective answer is often very needed. The procedure described is not just limited to traditional parameters, such as stress and strain, considered in destructive testing but rather extends into parameters derived from non-destructive testing, which may allow further insight into what may be happening within a material’s microstructure. To evaluate the non-destructive quantities measured within the StrainLife procedure and to correlate them with the aging process in a material, several fatigue tests were performed on unnotched and notched specimens under cyclic loading at room and elevated temperatures, as well as under various media conditions, such as distilled water and reactor pressure vessel boiling water (BWR) conditions.

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