Dependence of dynamic strain ageing on strain amplitudes during the low-cycle fatigue of TP347H austenitic stainless steel at 550 °C

• The stress responses and microstructures under LCF depend on strain amplitudes (Δεt).
• DSA is more pronounced after a certain number of cycles at low Δεt.
• Anomalous first hardening and reducing softening are associated with DSA at high Δεt.
• Complicated dislocation structures are formed at high Δεt.

Low-cycle fatigue (LCF) tests are carried out on TP347H stainless steel at a strain rate of 8 × 10−3 s−1 with total strain amplitudes (Δεt/2) of ±0.4% and ±1.0%, at room temperature (RT) and 550 °C. It is found that the stress responses and dislocation structures under cyclic loading strongly depend on the value of strain amplitude at 550 °C. Compared with those at the same strain amplitude at RT, the material shows a rapid strain softening, and finally attains a stabilized state at Δεt/2 = ±0.4% and 550 °C, but the one presents an anomalous behavior, i.e., first a rapid hardening to the maximum stress, followed by a reducing softening at Δεt/2 = ±1.0% and 550 °C. More cells resulting from dislocation cross-slip and planar structures due to dynamic strain ageing (DSA) restricting cross-slip develop at low strain amplitude of ±0.4% at the first cycle. However, there are more complicated dislocation structures, such as cells, elongated cells, walls/channels and planar structures at Δεt/2 = ±1.0%. The observations of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) exclude the effects of martensitic transformation, creep, oxidation, and precipitations on these stress responses and microstructure evolutions, which result from DSA appearing at 550 °C.