International Journal of Fatigue 156 (2022) 106632

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International Journal of Fatigue

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfatigue

Cyclic deformation behavior of metastable austenitic stainless steel AISI

347 in the VHCF regime at ambient temperature and 300 ◦ C
Tobias Daniel, Marek Smaga *, Tilmann Beck
Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, TUK, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) tests on metastable austenitic stainless steels using an ultrasonic fatigue testing
Cyclic deformation behavior (USFT) system are challenging due to the transient material behavior and associated pronounced self-heating
VHCF effects. Because the conventional measurement of stress-strain hysteresis is not possible in USFT, the cyclic
Ultrasonic testing system
deformation behavior can’t be described in a conventional manner. Hence, an energy-based approach is pro­
Metastable austenite
Ambient and elevated temperature
posed for the characterization of cyclic deformation behavior of austenitic stainless steels in the VHCF regime at
α′ -martensite ambient temperature (AT) and elevated temperature. Therefore, in-situ dissipated energy and temperature
measurements were performed. At AT both values underwent a change during cyclic loading, while at 300 ◦ C
only the dissipated energy changed. The investigated metastable austenitic stainless steel AISI 347
(X6CrNiNb1810, 1.4550) showed cyclic softening in the high cycle fatigue (HCF) regime (Nf < 107) at both
testing temperatures, which led to specimen failure. In the VHCF regime, cyclic hardening was observed, which
resulted in reaching the limiting number of load cycles Nl = 2 × 109 without specimen failure. This change in the
cyclic deformation behavior by a small reduction of the stress amplitude led to a horizontal course of the Woehler
curve in the VHCF regime and resulted in the true endurance limit for the investigated material. At AT, ferro­
magnetic α′ -martensite was detected in all fatigued specimens using magnetic measurements. At 300 ◦ C only
specimens which reached the limiting number of cycles without failure exhibited a small amount of
α′ -martensite.

[7,9] which both allow loading frequencies up to f = 1 kHz, ultrasonic

1. Introduction
During service life, many cyclically loaded technical components
undergo 108 up to 1011 load cycles, i.e. very high cycle fatigue (VHCF)
loadings. Conventional fatigue investigations assumed a “true” fatigue
limit for materials that achieve a horizontal asymptote in the Woehler
diagram between 106 and 107 load cycles, such that, below the fatigue
limit, no fatigue failure occurs [1]. However, VHCF research in the last
decades has shown that for many materials a further decrease in fatigue
strength can be found at load cycles beyond 107 [2–4]. Consequently,
investigations of the fatigue behavior in the VHCF regime up to 1011
load cycles have gained increasing attention [5]. In order to achieve
such high numbers of load cycles within reasonable time, very high
loading frequencies are necessary. Using conventional servo-hydraulic
testing systems operating usually at f = 5 Hz, fatigue tests up to 2 ×
109 load cycles would take more than ten years. For this reason, high-
frequency systems are used for VHCF investigations. In addition to a
servo-hydraulic high-frequency system [6–8] and resonance pulsators
fatigue testing (USFT) systems [7,10] operated at f = 20 kHz are widely
used. Resonance pulsators allow force- and displacement-controlled fa­
tigue testing, whereby the load frequency is affected by the stiffness of
the testing system. Thus, by changing the specimen geometry and/or the
oscillating mass, the load frequency can be influenced [7,11]. In servo-
hydraulic testing systems, the load frequency can be adjusted almost
continuously and also strain-controlled tests can be realized up to fre­
quencies of nearly 100 Hz [12]. The operating principle of ultrasonic
fatigue testing systems is based on the inverse piezoelectric effect, which
leads to the transformation of an electrical signal from the ultrasonic
generator into a high-frequency mechanical oscillation, which is
amplified and transmitted to the specimen via a booster [13,14]. All
parts of the system are designed to assure that under resonance condi­
tions a standing wave develops along the major load axis with a
maximum stress amplitude in the center of the gauge length of the
specimen (Fig. 1a) [15,16]. Because force measurement using a load cell
isn’t possible in USFT systems, force-controlled fatigue tests can’t be
performed, and only displacement amplitude controlled tests are viable.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: smaga@mv.uni-kl.de (M. Smaga).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2021.106632
Received 10 August 2021; Received in revised form 30 September 2021; Accepted 26 October 2021
Available online 19 November 2021
0142-1123/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
T. Daniel et al. International Journal of Fatigue 156 (2022) 106632

Nomenclature Pmax maximum power of ultrasonic generator

PUS power of ultrasonic generator
A elongation after fracture Q dissipated heat
AISI American Iron and Steel Institute Rp0.2 0.2% yield strength
AT ambient temperature RZ roughness
bcc body-centered cubic SFE stacking fault energy
c specific heat capacity sa displacement amplitude
Cr Chromium T temperature
Edis dissipated energy t time
f frequency U internal energy
fcc face-centered cubic USFT ultrasonic fatigue testing
feff effective frequency UTS ultimate tensile strength
HCF high cycle fatigue VHCF very high cycle fatigue
hdp hexagonal close-packed W deformation energy
I integral α′ bcc α′ -martensite phase
k calculation factor γ fcc γ-austenite phase
LCF low cycle fatigue ΔTpulse temperature change during pulse sequence
m mass ε hdp ε-martensite phase
MS Martensit start temperature εt total strain
N number of cycles μ thermal conductivity
Nf number of cycles to failure ξ ferromagnetic phase content in FE-%
Ni Nickel ρ density
Nl limiting number of cycles σ stress
P proportional σa stress amplitude

Fig. 1. Schematic diagrams showing: a) the operating principle of an ultrasonic
fatigue testing (USFT) system; b) the development of specimen displacement
(s); c) the development of the power of the ultrasonic generator (PUS); d) the
development of specimen temperature (T) during one pulse sequence; e) the
relationship between the dissipate energy (Edis) and the strain energy density
(W) and change in temperature ΔTpulse [21].
Generally, the specimen displacement amplitude is correlated in pre­
liminary tests by a linear relationship with the applied generator
voltage, and checked during the VHCF test using a laser vibrometer [17]
or a vibration gauge [18,19]. Using the measured displacement ampli­
tude at the specimen end, the load amplitude in the center of the spec­
imen can be calculated with a linear elastic correlation factor. Due to
the, compared with other methods, significantly higher load frequency
of approximately 20 kHz, almost all materials undergo significant self-
heating during ultrasonic fatigue testing, even at amplitudes close to,
or at the fatigue limit. Hence, fatigue tests using USFT systems are
usually carried out in a pulse-pause mode [13,14,17] (Fig. 1b). As shown
in Fig. 1c, at the beginning of the pulse sequence the power of the ul­
trasonic generator (PUS) increases rapidly until a maximum value (Pmax)
is reached approximately at the time when the desired displacement
amplitude of the specimen (sa) is established (Fig. 1b). Then the power is
regulated in such a way, that the displacement amplitude and, there­
with, the stress amplitude in the center region of the test piece, remain
constant until the end of the pulse sequence were the generator power
and displacement amplitude decrease to zero. The pulse and pause time
must be adjusted in a suitable way, such that the specimen temperature
does not exceed a limit value during the cyclic loading and sufficient
cooling is assured during the pause time (Fig. 1d). Note that possibilities
for characterizing the cyclic deformation behavior using USFT systems
are very restricted, while various measuring techniques have been
established for fatigue tests at lower frequencies, predominantly with
servo-hydraulic systems. Stanzl-Tschegg et al. [20] showed the usage of
strain gauges for total strain controlled fatigue tests and the indirect
determination of the plastic strain amplitude using relations with the
measured temperature increase. However, determining stress-strain
hysteresis is not possible due to the fact that load cells are not appli­
cable in USFT systems [2]. Therefore, other physically based data have
to be taken into consideration to characterize the cyclic deformation
behavior. During ultrasonic fatigue tests, the specimen temperature can
be measured contactless by a pyrometer. Thus, the temperature differ­
ence before and after a pulse sequence can be determined as ΔTpulse
(Fig. 1d). The authors had already demonstrated in [13,14,17] that
ΔTpulse is a sensitive value for detecting specimen failure in cyclically
stable materials. In addition, they also used the dissipated energy (Edis)
which is defined as an integral of the generator power over the pulse
time (Fig. 1e) to describe the fatigue behavior during high-frequency
cyclic loading.
In this study, measurement of the power of the ultrasonic generator
(PUS) and specimen temperature (T) versus time (t) were used to
determine the dissipated energy (Edis) and the change in temperature
ΔTpulse as a result of cyclic deformation during a pulse load sequence.
Both values correspond to the strain energy density determined
conventionally from stress-strain hysteresis loops [21–24] (Fig. 1e).
Piotrowski et al. [21] defined the area of a stress-strain hysteresis as the
irreversible plastic deformation energy (W) per load cycle and unit
volume. W is composed of dissipated heat Q and deformation induced
increase of the material internal energy U (eq. (1)), whereby about
90–95% of the deformation energy is converted into heat.
W = Q+U (1)
In USFT systems, at first electrical energy is converted into me­
chanical energy. A small part of the mechanical energy is dissipated in
the test rig. The remaining mechanical energy leads to the oscillation of
the specimen, which is converted into deformation energy during cyclic
loading. As mentioned above, approximately 95% of the deformation

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T. Daniel et al.
energy is dissipated to heat and can, hence, be measured continuously
by observation of the sample temperature during each load pulse. The
increase in temperature during the pulse time is a cumulative process.
Hence, the change in temperature as well as the dissipated energy
continuously increase during a load pulse, which lasted between 40 and
72 ms (see 3.2) in the tests on the investigated material and contained
approximately 600–1200 load cycles [13,14,17,25]. Therefore, both
values offered the possibility of analyzing the cyclic deformation
behavior and, therewith, provided implicit information about the
change in microstructure during the fatigue process induced by ultra­
sonic loadings [2,17,26].
Austenitic CrNi steels, also called “austenitic stainless steels”, often
shown a metastable state of the austenitic phase after quenching from
solution annealing temperature [2,27]. This allows a deformation
induced phase transformation from paramagnetic face-centered cubic
(fcc) γ-austenite into a more stable microstructure, i.e. paramagnetic
hexagonal close-packed (hdp) ε-martensite and/or ferromagnetic body-
centered cubic (bcc) α′ -martensite which significantly enhances the fa­
tigue resistance of this materials class [2,24,28,29]. The metastability of
such austenites strongly depends on the chemical composition and can
be assessed by different parameters based on empirical equations (2–4)
[2,30–32]. The Md30 temperature according to Angel describes the
temperature at which 50 vol% of α′ -martensite is achieved by a true
plastic deformation of 30%. At the MS temperature a thermally induced
phase transformation occurs without externally applied deformation
[30,33]. With the value of the stacking fault energy (SFE), the defor­
mation mechanisms under cyclic loading can be identified. In particular,
the Md30 value is often used to compare the austenite stability of
different CrNi steels [34,35].
◦ turned from the outside and delivered in a solution annealed state
Md30,Angel in C = 413 − 462x(C + N) − 13.7xCr − 9.5xNi − 8.1xMn
(2)
− 18.5xMo − 9.2xSi
◦
MS,Eichelmann in C = 1350− 1665x(C +N)− 42xCr − 61xNi − 33xMn− 28xSi
(3)
mJ
SFE in = 25.7 + 2xNi − 0.9xCr − 1.2xMn + 410xC − 77xN − 13xSi
m2
(4)
The concentrations of all alloying elements have to be inserted in wt
%.
Due to good mechanical and technological properties as well as
excellent corrosion resistance, austenitic stainless steels are very
important engineering materials, e.g. used for components with high
safety requirements in reactor pressure vessels of nuclear power plants,
[26,32]. Typical for these applications are stresses in the LCF regime due
to reactor start-up and shut-down processes. These are superimposed by
high frequency loadings in the VHCF regime due to fast cyclic thermal
fluctuations triggered by fluid dynamic processes [36]. VHCF in­
vestigations at the stable austenitic stainless steel AISI 904 under
rotating bending showed a negative slope of the S-N curve in the VHCF
regime up to 1010 load cycles [37]. The crack initiation occurred on the
specimen surface. Due to the high content of alloying elements in AISI
904L the microstructure was fully austenitic and no deformation
induced phase transformation was observed [38,39]. Investigations of
the metastable austenitic stainless steel AISI 304 with a high content of
α′ -martensite (>30 vol%) produced by quasi static pre-deformation at
low temperature showed a second decrease in the S-N curve up to
highest load cycles [40–42]. Furthermore, for N > 3 × 106, a transition
from crack initiation at the specimen surface to internal failure at oxide
inclusions was observed. If an inclusion was located in a previously
formed α′ -martensite area, this led to local stress concentrations in a
region where the material no longer had the potential to withstand crack
initiation or crack propagation through cyclic hardening [41]. In
contrast, metastable austenites with fully austenitic microstructure or
α′ -martensite contents up to 27 vol% in the initial state did not show any
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International Journal of Fatigue 156 (2022) 106632
fatigue failure in the VHCF regime [2,15,16,26], resulting in a hori­
zontal asymptote in the Woehler diagram above 107 load cycles. Only
few research was published on VHCF of austenitic steels at elevated
temperatures. Smaga et al. [2,43] were able to demonstrate the exis­
tence of a true fatigue limit in the VHCF regime for metastable austenites
AISI 347 with a fully austenitic microstructure in the initial state even at
elevated temperatures by fatigue tests on a servo-hydraulic testing sys­
tem at f = 980 Hz and T = 300 ◦ C up to a load cycle limit of Nl = 5 × 108.
Wagner et al. [44] investigated the fatigue behavior of the stable
austenitic steel AISI 303 at 600 ◦ C as well as 700 ◦ C. They observed a
continuous negative slope in the Woehler line up to 109 load cycles. In
the VHCF regime, both surface and volume crack initiation occurred.
The aim of this work was, on the one hand, to characterize the cyclic
deformation behavior in the VHCF regime of metastable austenitic
stainless steel using the dissipated energy determined from the power of
the ultrasonic generator (AT and 300 ◦ C), as well as the temperature
change during a pulse sequence (only at AT). On the other hand, the aim
was to increase the knowledge about fatigue life of this materials class in
the VHCF regime at AT and T = 300 ◦ C.
2. Material
2.1. Investigated material
The investigated material was the Niobium stabilized metastable
austenitic stainless steel AISI 347 (X6CrNiNb1810, 1.4550). The VHCF
specimens were extracted from an original nuclear power plant surge
line pipe with an outside diameter of 333 mm and a wall thickness of 36
mm. The pipe was manufactured seamless, drilled from the inside,
(1050 ◦ C / 10 min), such that in the initial state no α′ -martensite was
detected by microscopic, x-ray and magnetic Feritscope™ measure­
ments [45]. The surge line pipe was not previously used for applications
in nuclear power plants.
The chemical composition of the investigated material determined
by spectral analysis is given in Table 1 and corresponds to the limits
given in the respective international standard [46]. Note, that this
standard mainly ensures sufficient corrosion resistance and does not
focus on the metastability of the austenite. Consequently, the allowed
difference in the chemical composition leads, for the same type of
austenitic stainless steel, to a significant difference in their metastability
[34]. Regarding the metastability of the investigated AISI 347 evaluated
by equations (2)-(4), it is shown that the investigated material is in a
metastable state at ambient temperature (Table 1).
The microstructure in the initial state was fully austenitic with
typical annealing twins and relatively large grains (Fig. 2a). The cross
section showed a rather high chemical homogeneity compared to studies
on bar material, which often shows pronounced segregation [39].
Quantitative microstructure analysis revealed a mean grain size of 120
µm without the consideration of solution annealing twins. All specimens
of the investigated material for fatigue and tensile tests were mechani­
cally and electrolytically polished to obtain a surface roughness of Rz =
0.16 µm and to remove small amounts of α′ -martensite at the specimen
surface that may have formed in the turning process. Afterwards, mag­
netic Feritscope™ measurements on the specimens showed no ferro­
magnetic phase content ξ = 0.00 FE-%, confirming that no α′ -martensite
was present in the initial state. As a safeguard, this measurement was
performed at four different locations in the gauge length, rotated against
each other by 90◦ .
The stress-strain curve and the respective evolution of the
α′ -martensite content during monotonic tensile tests at AT and 300 ◦ C
are shown in Fig. 2b. The results are summarized in Table 2. As ex­
pected, the material strength decreased with increasing temperature.
Due to no presence of α′ -martensite formation at 300 ◦ C during mono­
tonic tensile loading, the ultimate strain to failure was lower at elevated
temperature. At ambient temperature the plastic deformation of 66% led
T. Daniel et al. International Journal of Fatigue 156 (2022) 106632

Table 1
Chemical composition in wt% and austenite stability parameters of the investigated metastable steel AISI 347.
C N Cr Ni Nb Mn Mo Si MS in ◦ C Md30 in ◦ C SFE in mJ/m2 at AT

0.04 0.007 17.6 10.64 0.62 1.83 0.29 0.41 − 189 25 42

Fig. 2. a) Optical micrograph of the investigated material in its initial state, etched with Beraha II and b) stress strain behavior at ambient temperature and T =
300 ◦ C as well as the formation of α′ -martensite during tensile tests [47].

Table 2
Mechanical properties, α′ -martensite content (ξ) after specimen failure, density (ρ), Poisson’s ratio as well as thermal conductivity (µ).
Rp0.2 in MPa Young’s Modulus in GPa UTS in MPa A in % ξ in FE-% ρ in g/cm3 Poisson’s ratio Thermal conductivity µ in W/(m⋅K)

AT 242 183 569 66 4.41 7.85 0.3 15 [46]

300 ◦ C 180 159 357 36 0.00 – –

to the formation of a 4.41 FE-% ferromagnetic phase, i.e. α′ -martensite.
Note that the linear relationship between FE-% and vol% of
α′ -martensite of the investigated material was determined systemati­
cally by XRD measurements and can be described as 1.57xFE-% = vol%
α′ -martensite [48]. However in the further text, the original measure­
ment data of the Feritscope™ without recalculation into vol%
α′ -martensite is given to keep comparability to results presented else­
where [2,34,43].
3. Experimental setup and testing procedure
3.1. Ultrasonic fatigue testing (USFT) systems for tests at AT and T =
300 ◦ C
Fig. 3 shows the details of the USFT systems operating at AT and
300 ◦ C as well as the respective specimen geometries. To ensure fully
reversed loading with the maximum displacement at the specimen end
and the maximum stress in the middle of the gauge length (see Fig. 1a),
the specimens were designed for axial oscillation in the first Eigenmode
at the operating frequency via dynamic FEM-simulation [8]. The
Young’s Modulus of the investigated material determined in tensile
tests, Poisson’s ratio as well as material density (s. Table 2) were used as
input data for the simulation. Due to the temperature-dependent
Young’s Modulus, specimens with different geometries were used for
the tests at ambient temperature and T = 300 ◦ C (Fig. 3a and d). For the
fatigue tests at ambient temperature, a booster with an amplitude
transformation ratio of 1:2.5 was used, i.e. the axial displacement
amplitude at the converter was amplified by a factor of 2.5. Due to the
lower stress amplitudes required at T = 300 ◦ C, a booster with an
amplitude transformation ratio of 1:1.5 was used for these tests. The
maximum stress amplitude was calculated based on steady state FEM
simulations from the linear relationship between maximum stress
amplitude and maximum displacement amplitude at the lower end of
the specimen measured by a 1-axis laser vibrometer. A calculation factor
of kAT = 26.3 MPa/µm was determined for the tests at AT and
k300◦ C = 24.6 MPa/µm for the tests at T = 300 ◦ C. Accordingly, in the

Fig. 3. a) and d) specimen geometry designed by FEM-simulation in ABAQUS; b) and c) photo of experimental setup for fatigue tests at AT as well as 300 ◦ C.

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T. Daniel et al. International Journal of Fatigue 156 (2022) 106632

results part only the stress amplitude is used to describe the fatigue re­
sults. In order to achieve a laser vibrometer signal with high quality and
stability over a complete VHCF experiment, an appropriate reflecting
foil was fixed to the measuring points (see Fig. 3b and c). With this
experimental setup, the fatigue test was continuously monitored and the
exact number of load cycles could be determined. To enable contactless
temperature measurement, the specimens were covered with
temperature-resistant black matt lacquer before starting the test to
achieve an emission value of approximately 1.
For the isothermal fatigue tests at 300 ◦ C, an induction heating
system was integrated into the USFT system (Fig. 3c) [49]. The tem­
perature measurement/control was contactless via a pyrometer. To Fig. 4. Influence of the readjustment of the load pulse, a) load pulse for the
purely austenitic microstructure at the beginning of the test, b) load pulse for
protect the converter from elevated temperatures, an extension rod, also
the austenitic-martensitic microstructure without readjustment, c) load pulse
designed via FEM simulation for longitudinal oscillation at 20 kHz with
for the austenitic-martensitic microstructure after readjustment.
an amplitude transformation ratio of 1:1, was inserted between the
booster and the specimen. Preliminary investigations were carried out to
successive adjustments of the control parameters (Fig. 4c). In the first
assure a symmetrical temperature distribution along the specimen [50],
case, i.e. for a fully austenitic sample, the desired amplitude was reached
such that a symmetrical stress state could be assured with the maximum
within a few ms, remained constant during the stationary phase of the
stress in the center of the gauge length. Before fatigue testing, the
pulse and dropped rapidly at the end of the pulse. Within the pulse
specimen was heated to 300 ◦ C within 30 min and then kept at constant
sequence, perfectly sinusoidal vibrations can be seen in the changed
temperature for further 30 min. In the fatigue tests at elevated tem­
scale of the time axis (detail view in Fig. 4a). In the stationary phase of
perature, the displacement measurement took place at the lower end of
this pulse, a constant displacement amplitude of 9.5 µm was achieved. In
the extension rod by using the laser vibrometer. Since the fatigue
contrast, the second exemplarily shown pulse showed a change in pulse
specimen are symmetrical, the same displacement occurred at the lower
shape due to deformation-induced α′ -martensite formation during cyclic
end of the specimen as at the lower end of the extension rod (comp.
loading (Fig. 4b) which resulted in a considerable variation of the
Fig. 1a) [51]. The accuracy of this method was confirmed in preliminary
oscillation amplitude in the stationary load period. Consequently, con­
tests with maximum deviations less than 2%. Throughout each load
stant amplitude fatigue testing wasn’t viable in this manner. After
pulse, continuous measurement of the power of the ultrasonic generator
adjusting the proportional and integral (PI) parameters of the load unit
and temperature in the specimen gauge length was performed. At AT,
control circuit, a nearly ideal pulse shape with constant displacement
both dissipated energy and temperature change were used to charac­
amplitude was recovered, even if further deformation-induced phase
terize the cyclic deformation behavior (see chapter 1). During fatigue
transformation occurred (Fig. 4c). Hence, in order to perform the VHCF
testing at 300 ◦ C only the dissipated energy was considered since the
test on metastable austenite completely with an USFT, namely from N =
temperature was kept constant via closed-loop-control. In selected fa­
0 up to the limiting number of cycles e.g. Nl = 2 × 109, a successive
tigue test at AT, short interruptions were realized at defined cycle
adjustment of the control parameters is essential, especially in the initial
numbers for quasi in-situ Feritscope™ measurements of the ferromag­
phase where pronounced α′ -martensite formation occurs [39]. The
netic α′ -martensite fraction. Feritscope™ measurements in tests at
recording of the exact number of load cycles per pulse is realized by
300 ◦ C were only carried out before and after the fatigue test.
means of a self-developed LabVIEW-based measuring program. Only
those load cycles were counted where at least 90% of the generator
3.2. Control and adjustment of load amplitude
amplitude is present. This guarantees that load cycles with insufficient
stress during the onset and decay processes are not counted [54].
To perform valid fatigue tests on an USFT system in pulse-pause
In addition to keeping the load amplitude constant, the deformation
mode, the following aspects must be considered: (i) a correct pulse
induced temperature change of the material during VHCF tests has to be
shape with short onset and decay times as well as a stable stationary
kept within allowable limits. Due to low thermal conductivity together
phase must be achieved; (ii) a constant displacement respectively stress
with pronounced local cyclic plasticity even in the VHCF regime
amplitude must be ensured throughout the complete fatigue test; (iii)
[38,42], austenitic stainless steels show a significant self-heating during
the pulse-pause ratio needs to be selected in such a way that specimen
high frequency loadings [8,11,55]. While pulse-pause ratios of 500 ms /
heating due to the high-frequency loading does not lead to excessive
3500 ms (corresponding to an effective frequency feff = 2500 Hz) are
temperatures. Since, compared to other materials, metastable austenitic
typically used for materials such as titanium alloys or martensitic steels,
stainless steels exhibit more significant self-heating during high fre­
this setting resulted in a specimen temperature of 195 ◦ C for the
quency fatigue combined with deformation induced phase trans­
investigated metastable austenitic steel within two load pulses at σa =
formation from fcc γ-austenite to the bcc α′ -martensite, those three
263 MPa [2,15,17,52,54]. In order to prevent such excessive tempera­
aspects are extremely important in case of ultrasonic fatigue testing of
ture increases in the VHCF tests on AISI 347 an initial pulse-pause ratio
this materials class [2,15].
of 40–60 ms / 2500 ms depending on the stress amplitude and the
Due to the highly transient material behavior of this material class
cooling performance had to be used. This resulted in a relatively low
during USFT, especially at ambient temperature, the tests presented very
effective frequency of feff = 320–400 Hz, which would lead to 58 days of
challenging conditions compared to stable metallic materials e.g.
testing to reach the limiting number of cycles Nl = 2 × 109. Because the
ferritic-martensitic steels [52]. Already a small increase of the stiffer
deformation-induced α′ -martensite formation strongly reduced the
α′ -martensitic phase in the softer austenite phase led to a pronounced
locally cyclic plasticity [2,56] and, therewith, the self-heating of the
change of the displacement amplitude as well as the pulse shape due to
material, a stepwise increase of the pulse time and a reduction of pause
reduced micro-plastic deformation and a change in the material reso­
time could be realized, resulting in higher effective frequencies up to
nance behavior [8,39,53]. Fig. 4 shows representative pulses with a
1650 Hz for tests at ambient temperature (see Figs. 6, 7 & 9) [6; 9]. The
constant pulse time of 60 ms for three different fatigue states; (i) at the
VHCF tests at 300 ◦ C required considerably smaller readjustments of the
beginning of the test where a fully austenitic microstructure was present
PI parameters due to the higher austenite stability at elevated temper­
(Fig. 4a), (ii) at N = 107 load cycles where the specimen had a mixed
ature. Furthermore, the cyclic loading could be started with a higher
austenitic / α′ -martensitic microstructure without adjusting the control
pulse-pause ratio of 60 ms / 1 500 ms (feff = 800 Hz), which resulted in
parameters (Fig. 4b) and (iii) at the same cycle number but after

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T. Daniel et al.
Fig. 5. a) Beginning of an ultrasonic fatigue test with in-test readjustment of
the generator voltage and PI parameters as well as the transient response to
achieve the required displacement respectively stress amplitude; b) the stable
shape of two pulses with different pulse times.
Fig. 6. Development of the in-situ measured data: maximum displacement
amplitude (sa), loading frequency (f), change in temperature during load pulse
(ΔTpulse) and maximum generator power (Pmax), the quasi in-situ magnetic
Feritscope™ measured (ξ) as well as the post processing determinate dissipated
energy (Edis) during a single-step test with σa = 249 MPa at ambient
temperature.
Fig. 7. a) Cyclic deformation behavior characterized by development of change
in temperature ΔTpulse during a pulse and b) the dissipated energy Edis versus
load cycles during VHCF tests at ambient temperature in an USFT system.
Fig. 8. a) Development of the dissipated energy versus load cycles during VHCF tests with a test frequency of f = 20 kHz; b) development of plastic strain amplitude
during HCF tests with a test frequency of f = 20 Hz [43] at T = 300 ◦ C for the same batch of AISI 347.
6
International Journal of Fatigue 156 (2022) 106632
small deviations in specimen temperature (max. 3% / max. 309 ◦ C). Also
at elevated temperature, the pulse time could be increased during cyclic
loading because cyclic hardening, albeit less pronounced, occurred at
elevated temperature, too (see Fig. 8)
The abovementioned changes in the pulse / pause ratio directly
influenced the estimated Edis defined as the integral of the generator
power over the pulse time:
∫
Edis = Pdt (5)
Therefore, the dependence on the pulse time had to be taken into
consideration in analyzing Edis and also ΔT. To illustrate this aspect,
Fig. 5a shows an example of the development of Edis in the early phase of
the VHCF loading for two fatigue tests, performed with two different
pulse / pause ratios: (i) 40 ms / 2 500 ms and (ii) 60 ms / 2 500 ms. Due
to the different pulse times, there were different numbers of load cycles
per pulse for both experiments: (i) N ≈ 600 for 40 ms and (ii) N ≈ 1 000
for 60 ms. This led to different absolute values of Edis in both tests
despite the same load amplitude of 250 MPa, which corresponded with a
displacement amplitude of 9.5 µm.
As mentioned earlier, at the beginning of VHCF tests (N 〈1 0 4) an
adjustment of the control parameters was required. Due to slight dif­
ferences in the oscillation of individual specimens at the same control
settings, the first pulse of a fatigue test was deliberately started with a
low generator voltage to avoid overshoots in the stress amplitude (first
data points in Fig. 5a). To achieve the required stress amplitude, the
generator voltage was increased after the first load pulse. In the
following load period up to approximately 8 × 103 load cycles, a
decrease of the displacement amplitude as well as the Edis can be seen in
both tests, which resulted from the initial increase of the specimen
temperature. At this point further in-test adjustment of PI parameters
was performed to keep the load pulse regular and constant. After N =
104 a stable oscillation was reached, as confirmed by the stable shape of
Fig. 9. a) Fatigue life curves of the investigated metastable austenitic steel AISI
347 at ambient temperature (f = 20 kHz) and at T = 300 ◦ C (f = 20 kHz, 980 Hz
& 20 Hz); b) development of the dissipate energy versus load cycles during five
VHCF tests at ambient temperature with stress amplitudes of σa = 249 /
250 MPa.
T. Daniel et al.
load pulse #16 for a pulse time of 40 ms and load pulse #10 for a pulse
time of 60 ms in the representative displacement-time graphs in Fig. 5b.
Note that this initial process only took up 0.0005% of the limiting
number of load cycles of the test series. Accordingly, the fatigue tests are
presented in the following from 104 load cycles onwards.
4. Results and discussion
Using the methods outlined in chapter 3, ultrasonic fatigue tests were
performed on AISI 347 at ambient temperature with stress amplitudes in
the range 243 MPa ≤ σa ≤ 283 MPa as well as at 300 ◦ C in the range 153
MPa ≤ σa ≤ 192 MPa. To characterize the cyclic deformation behavior,
several data were obtained. Fig. 6 shows an example of a fatigue test
with σa = 249 MPa and the development of in-situ and quasi in-situ
determined data. The in-situ data were: maximum displacement
amplitude (sa), loading frequency (f), change in temperature during
each load pulse ΔTpulse and maximum generator power (Pmax) as well as
the resulting dissipated energy (Edis). The quasi in-situ data involved the
magnetic Feritscope™ signal, which was measured at defined cycle
numbers during the pause time.
The test started with a pulse-pause ratio of 60 ms / 2500 ms and a
load frequency of 20.27 kHz. As already described in Section 2, the
specimen had at the beginning of the test a purely austenitic micro­
structure without α′ -martensite. After achieving the required loading
amplitude at 104 cycles, all measured values remained constant and the
material showed a stable state up to 106 load cycles. Starting from an
initial specimen temperature of 20 ◦ C, cyclic loading with σa = 249 MPa
during the pulse time of 60 ms increased the specimen temperature to
43 ◦ C, which results in ΔTpulse of 23 K. In the pause time of 2500 ms the
specimen cooled down to the initial temperature before the next pulse
followed. After 106 load cycles a strong decrease in ΔTpulse was detected,
which correlated to the cyclic hardening of the material. Alongside with
this, formation of α′ -martensite was detected by Feritscope™ measure­
ments which resulted in the increasing strength of the austenitic/
martensitic microstructure and, hence, in cycling hardening [22,41].
Because of the formation of α′ -martensite, also the amplitude evolution
during the pulse changed, especially in the phase of the fatigue test with
a high rate of α′ -martensite formation. Therefore, a permanent adjust­
ment of the PI parameters was performed as described in Section 3.2. It
could be argued that, because α′ -martensite exhibits a higher damping
[53], the increase of the ferromagnetic content should lead to an in­
crease in the generator power required to maintain oscillation at con­
stant displacement amplitude. However, a decrease in Pmax was
observed during this phase. This can be explained by the fact, that the
lower plastic deformation, as a result of cyclic hardening, induced less
energy dissipation and, thus, less power from the generator was
required. From these findings, it was concluded that a decrease of
generator power Pmax which is associated with a decrease of the dissi­
pated energy Edis indicates cyclic hardening in metastable austenitic
stainless steels. Conversely, increasing Pmax and Edis were associated to
cyclic softening. In addition, the vibration frequency showed a reaction
to the cyclic deformation behavior of the material. While it increased
due to cyclic hardening (see Fig. 6), it decreased during cyclic softening.
As stated above, the cyclic hardening and the resulting lower self-
heating of the specimen allowed an increase in the pulse-pause ratio.
For this reason, after N = 5 × 107 load cycles the pulse-pause ratio was
increased to 68 ms / 1500 ms which resulted in feff2 = 870 Hz. The in­
crease of the pulse time led to a higher ΔTpulse, which explains the
abrupt change of this value, as well as of the dissipated energy in Fig. 6.
After N = 1.25 × 108 load cycles, the pulse-pause ratio was further
increased to 72 ms / 800 ms, resulting in an effective frequency of feff3 =
1650 Hz. Until the limiting number of cycles, a plateau in the measured
parameters was reached, i.e. the α′ -martensite content assumed a stable
value of 2.4 FE-% which was measured at the end of the fatigue test.
Accordingly, ΔTpulse, Pmax und Edis showed no significant changes from
N = 1.25 × 108 cycles until the end of the fatigue test.
7
International Journal of Fatigue 156 (2022) 106632
While the specimen loaded with σa = 249 MPa reached the VHCF
regime without failure, even just slightly higher stress amplitudes led to
specimen failure which generally occurred at cycle numbers below 106.
The cyclic deformation behavior at different stress amplitudes (σa = 249
to 283 MPa) was characterized by using ΔTpulse and Edis (see Fig. 7). All
tests were performed with the same pulse/pause ratio of 60 ms / 2500
ms, except σa = 249 MPa for N > 4 × 107, where a higher pulse/pause
ratio was possible after the cyclic hardening phase of the experiment
(see above). A direct correlation between ΔTpulse and Edis was clearly
seen in all experiments. As shown in Fig. 6, the fatigue test at σa = 249
MPa showed, after stable behavior from about N = 106 load cycles,
cyclic hardening which led to a decrease in the temperature change
associated with a reduction of the dissipated energy per pulse.
Increasing the stress amplitude by only 1 MPa to σa = 250 MPa led to an
entirely different cyclic deformation behavior (Fig. 7): In this case, after
an initially stable state, the material showed cyclic softening (N > 5 ×
104) until specimen failure at Nf = 4 × 105. With further increase of the
stress amplitude to σa = 283 MPa, the cyclic softening took place earlier
and was more pronounced.
Due to closed-loop control of the temperature in the isothermal
VHCF tests at T = 300 ◦ C only the dissipated energy offers the possibility
to characterize the cyclic deformation behavior. Fig. 8a shows the
development of the dissipated energy during four fatigue tests, which
were started with the same pulse-pause ratio, i.e. 60 ms /1500 ms. The
results showed a qualitatively similar cyclic deformation behavior as
observed at ambient temperature (Fig. 7). For σa = 157 MPa an initial
cyclic softening was followed by saturation between N = 105 to 106 load
cycles and subsequent cyclic hardening, until the limiting number of
cycles was reached without specimen failure. Due to cyclic hardening,
the pulse-pause ratio was similarly increased as in the tests at ambient
temperature. The longer pulse time resulted in a higher dissipated en­
ergy, which is seen in the abrupt increases of Edis at N = 4 × 107 and N =
2 × 108. After N = 109 load cycles, the cyclic deformation behavior
stabilized until the limiting number of load cycles was reached.
The aforementioned ultrasonic fatigue tests at 20 kHz and 300 ◦ C
were compared with results from tests at 20 Hz and 300 ◦ C for the same
batch of AISI 347 using a servo-hydraulic test system [43,45]. In the
latter case the stress strain hysteresis loops were recorded using data
from continuous stress and strain measurement. Dissipated energy per
load pulse Edis measured during USFT and εa,p measured at 20 Hz indi­
cated the same sequences in cyclic deformation depending on the
applied stress amplitude (compare Fig. 8a with 8b). Note that the two
specimens tested at f = 20 Hz and σa = 160 MPa showed very similar
development of the plastic strain amplitude, with an increase from the
beginning up to N ~ 104, followed by a decrease, up to εa,p = 0% until
the load cycle limit (Nl = 107). A direct comparison of the data shown in
Fig. 8a and 8b clearly confirmed the relationship between the dissipated
energy and the plastic strain amplitude or, in general, to the plastic
deformation energy density. Furthermore, the comparison of the two-
test series with almost identical stress amplitudes showed good accor­
dance between the tests performed on an ultrasonic and a servo-
hydraulic system, respectively.
Fig. 9a presents S-N curves of the investigated AISI 347 at ambient
and elevated temperature. A total of 63 fatigue tests were performed, 19
at ambient temperature at 20 kHz and 44 at 300 ◦ C at different test
frequencies. As expected and analogous to the results of quasi-static
loading, the fatigue strength decreased with increasing temperature.
No failure occurred in the VHCF regime at both, ambient temperature
and 300 ◦ C. At ambient temperature, σa ≥ 250 MPa led to specimen
failure only in the HCF regime (Nf 〈1 0 7). Because in the range between
246 MPa and 250 MPa both, failures and run-outs, were observed, seven
additional tests were performed to further investigate this phenomenon.
The results confirmed a sharp transition from specimen failure at σa =
250 MPa and reaching the load cycle limit at σa ≤ 249 MPa. Fig. 9b
shows the development of the dissipated energy during four exemplarily
chosen tests in this stress amplitude regime. Note that the tests were
T. Daniel et al.
started with different pulse-pause ratios, resulting in different values of
dissipated energy per pulse sequence at the beginning, as explained
above (see Fig. 5). Two fatigue tests with σa = 249 MPa (dark grey and
black curve) showed cyclic hardening. The fatigue test with σa = 250
MPa (grey) and a pulse-pause ratio of 40 ms / 2500 ms initially dis­
played weak cyclic hardening before cyclic softening and subsequent
specimen failure at Nf = 4 × 106 load cycles. Another test at σa = 250
MPa (lighter grey) and a pulse-pause ratio of 60 ms / 2500 ms indicated
only cyclic softening. The α′ -martensite content in FE-% measured by
Feritscope™ after the end of the fatigue test is indicated in Fig. 9a. It can
be seen, that specimens loaded at AT which reached the limiting number
of load cycles reached distinctly higher α′ -martensite contents (1.3 ≤ ξ
≤ 2.4 FE-%) than those, which had already failed in the HCF regime at
higher stress amplitudes (0.3 ≤ ξ ≤ 0.85 FE-%). The cyclic hardening
due to the formation of α′ -martensite obviously reduced cyclic plastic
deformation, and inhibited the formation and propagation of micro
cracks [11,40,43]. Consequently, a true fatigue strength exists at σa =
249 MPa, i.e. far above the endurance limit for 109 cycles of 200 MPa
estimated by extrapolation of the S-N curve in the HCF regime.
Notably, also at 300 ◦ C no fatigue failure occurred in the VHCF
regime. Failure in the HCF regime occurred for σa > 163 MPa, while
lower stress amplitudes led to reaching the limiting number of cycles
without failure. At a stress amplitude of σa = 163 MPa, both, a specimen
failure at Nf = 5⋅106 and a run-out were found. In the HCF regime, the S-
N curve showed a similar slope as at ambient temperature while, even at
T = 300 ◦ C, cyclic hardening led to the formation of a horizontal S-N
curve up from N = 107 load cycles. Additionally, the HCF tests per­
formed with a frequency of f = 20 Hz (19 fatigue tests) show a lower
number of cycles to failure than for f = 20 kHz (14 fatigue tests) as well
as tests performed on a servo-hydraulic high frequency system at f =
980 Hz (11 fatigue tests). On the one hand, the different specimen ge­
ometries have to be taken into account [43], on the other hand when the
specimen heating is suppressed, an increase in test frequency and
consequently the strain rate leads to reduced dislocation movement by
increasing yield stress of the material, which ultimately results in a
higher fatigue life [57].
Due to the increased austenite stability at 300 ◦ C, underpinned by the
results from monotonic (Fig. 2b) and cyclic loading in LCF regime
[2,45,47], the formation of α′ -martensite was not expected in VHCF tests
at 300 ◦ C. However, all run-out specimens tested at this temperature
exhibited small ferromagnetic α′ -martensite contents while in all failed
specimens no α′ -martensite (ξ = 0.0 FE-%) was detected. This effect did
not only occur in case of VHCF loadings at 20 kHz up to limiting cycle
number of 5 × 108 and beyond, but also in tests at 20 Hz, and 980 Hz
[43,45], which were, due to lower test frequencies, stopped at Nl =
107 and 5 × 108 load cycles, respectively. Note in this context that the
run-outs loaded at 20 kHz had higher α′ -martensite contents of ξ =
0.6–0.9 FE-% than those loaded at f = 20 and 980 Hz which exhibited ξ
= 0.1–0.3 FE-%. Several studies on α′ -martensite formation as a function
of the test frequency showed that an increasing of the strain rate results
in a higher number of shear bands and their interactions, which lead to a
higher α′ -martensite formation rate. However, this is only valid if
excessive specimen heating, as a result of high deformation rates, is
prevented, which causes an opposite effect [45,57,58].
In order to further characterize the microstructural deformation and
fatigue mechanisms of metastable austenitic stainless steels in the VHCF
regime at ambient and elevated temperature, including planar and/or
wavy slip character, twinning, development of stacking faults, and for­
mation of ε- and/or α′ -martensite, extensive microstructural in­
vestigations using high resolution electron microscopy would be
required which will be performed in further research.
5. Summary and conclusions
In the presented work, advanced experimental procedures were
developed for ultrasonic fatigue testing of metastable austenitic stainless
8
International Journal of Fatigue 156 (2022) 106632
steel including characterization of the cyclic deformation behavior
based on measurements of specimen temperature and dissipated energy.
Fatigue tests on AISI 347 stainless steel were performed using these
methods at both, AT and 300 ◦ C. For comparison, fatigue tests were
performed on servohydraulic testing systems at 300 ◦ C and frequencies
of 20 Hz and 980 Hz. From this, the following conclusions are drawn:
• Opposed to high-strength steels and further metallic materials like
aluminum and titanium alloys, displacement-controlled VHCF tests
on metastable austenites using an ultrasonic fatigue testing system
imposes serious challenges in adjusting the closed loop control and
test parameters due to the phase transformation and pronounced
self-heating of the material. The complex test procedure required
extensive readjustments of several control parameters to keep the
loading amplitude constant.
• Due to exceptionally strong self-heating of the material, ultrasonic
fatigue testing was only possible with rather small pulse/pause ra­
tios, which, even though using a loading frequency of f = 20 kHz, led
to long test times (Nl = 2 × 109 in ~ 25 days).
• The temperature change during a pulse sequence (ΔTpulse) and the
respective dissipated energy (Edis) were found to be a suitable means
for detailed characterization of cyclic deformation behavior of
metastable austenitic stainless steels in VHCF regime.
• No specimen failure was detected in ultrasonic fatigue tests at
ambient temperature below stress amplitudes of 249 MPa due to
cyclic hardening associated with deformation induced formation of
α′ -martensite. At higher stress levels, cyclic softening occurred which
is increasingly pronounced with increasing amplitude and results in
failure in the HCF regime. The specimens that achieved the limiting
number of cycles showed higher α′ -martensite contents (1.3 ≤ ξ ≤
2.4 FE-%) compared to specimens that failed in the HCF regime (0.3
≤ ξ ≤ 0.85 FE-%).
• Also at T = 300 ◦ C no VHCF failure was observed. The S-N curve
assumed a horizontal shape at a stress amplitude of 163 MPa, which
was also in this case associated with cyclic hardening. This complied
with the fact that α′ -martensite was found in run-out samples despite
an increased austenite stability at elevated temperatures.
• A comparison of the fatigue tests at 300 ◦ C with different frequencies
showed a good qualitative correlation between the evolutions of the
plastic strain amplitude determined in tests at 20 Hz on a servohy­
draulic system with the dissipated energy during the single load
pulses applied in the USFT system.
• The investigated AISI 347 steel showed a positive influence of test
frequency on the fatigue strength in the VHCF regime at T = 300 ◦ C,
i.e. at a test frequency of 20 kHz and 980 Hz a higher fatigue strength
was achieved than at f = 20 Hz.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and
Energy (BMWi), Germany for the financial support.
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