Low Cycle Fatigue Performance of 304L Stainless Steel Weldments

Abstract

Recently, the market of liquefied natural gas is growing in accordance with shale gas development and environmentally friendly policies. Also, LNG is in the spotlight as an alternative fuel to previously used fossil fuel and the fuel for the ship to meet emission standards which takes effected by IMO (International Maritime Organization). According to growth of LNG, LNG carriers needs are also expected to increase significantly. This study investigates low cycle fatigue (LCF) performance of 304L stainless steel weldments to investigate fatigue performance in plastic strain region. 304L stainless steel is known to have improved fatigue performance at cryogenic conditions. LCF behavior are investigated by a strain-controlled condition up to 1% strain range and conducted with three different thickness (3mm, 5mm, 10mm). Also, test were performed with three different strain ratio R such as R = -1, -0, 0.5, Finally, the fatigue design curve for 304L stainless steel weldments at room tem-perature are proposed. Considering all test conditions, it is shown that LCF performance have similar tendency regardless of thickness and strain ratio. LCF design curve of 304L stainless steel weldments are lower than 304L stainless steel base metal.