Towards a Better Understanding of the Ratcheting Phenomenon

Abstract

In this work our goal is to better understand the origin of the cyclic accumulation of the inelastic strain (often called ratcheting) observed in 304L SS subjected to uniaxial cyclic stress control at room temperature. Recent works performed in the frame of small strain assumption attribute this phenomenon essentially to creep [1]. However, outside this frame, it seems that creep is not the only contributor in this phenomenon [2]. New experiments are performed here in order to investigate the role played by creep, cyclic softening, fatigue damage and ratcheting in this observation.