Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 7341–7349

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Materials Science and Engineering A

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

Cyclic plastic deformation behavior in SA333 Gr. 6 C–Mn steel

Surajit Kumar Paul a,c,∗ , S. Sivaprasad b , S. Dhar c , S. Tarafder b
a
Research and Development, Tata Steel Limited, Jamshedpur 831001, India
b
Materials Science & Technology Division, National Metallurgical Laboratory (Council of Scientific & Industrial Research), Jamshedpur 831 007, India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Low cycle fatigue, ratcheting and dependence of their deformation response on previous deformation his-
Received 1 April 2011 tories are investigated at room temperature laboratory environment for SA333 C–Mn steel. It is noticed
Received in revised form 4 June 2011 that cyclic hardening/softening response of low cycle fatigue is considerably influenced by applied strain
Accepted 6 June 2011
amplitude, monotonic pre-straining and high to low step loading sequences. Results indicate that ratchet-
Available online 13 June 2011
ing under high to low step loading has significant effect on its subsequent ratcheting response. However,
ratcheting under low to high step loading has very little effect on successive ratcheting responses.
Keywords:
© 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Low cycle fatigue
Ratcheting
True stress–strain
Step loading
Pre-strain

1. Introduction Therefore, for efficient designing purposes and maintaining struc-

The fatigue/cyclic plastic deformation behavior of metallic
materials is usually determined using push–pull tests under con-
stant strain amplitude until fracture. From these tests uniaxial
stress–strain response as well as fatigue life can be obtained. How-
ever, these tests are too restrictive with respect to actual loading
of structural components in terms of loading type and variation in
time and space. The present work aims at characterizing the cyclic
plastic deformation behavior of SA333 Gr. 6 C–Mn steel under com-
plex cyclic loading. Influence of loading type and loading history on
cyclic plastic deformation response are also examined.
SA333 Gr. 6 C–Mn steel is used as a primary heat transport
piping material in Indian nuclear power plants. Cyclic plastic
deformation can occur in such piping materials during start-up
and shut-down or variation in operating conditions or seis-
mic events. In such conditions, cyclic loading is not restricted
to continuous symmetric strain cycling. It may be symmet-
ric/asymmetric, stress/strain controlled, uniaxial/multiaxial or
continuous/stepped/random (continuous – stress amplitude and
mean stress remain constant though out the test; stepped – stress
amplitude or mean stress increase intermittently with cycling; ran-
dom – stress amplitude and mean stress changes with cycles).
∗ Corresponding author at: Research and Development, Tata Steel Limited, Bis-
tupur, Jamshedpur 831001, India. Tel.: +91 9939632284;
fax: +91 6572345405.
E-mail address: paulsurajit@yahoo.co.in (S.K. Paul).
tural integrity, detailed knowledge of cyclic plastic deformation
response is necessary.
In specimen level laboratory experiments, cyclic plastic defor-
mation behavior of materials can be explored by stress or strain
controlled tests. Symmetric strain or stress cycling experiments
which are generally referred to as low cycle fatigue (LCF) pro-
vide information about the cyclic hardening/softening behavior of
materials [1,2]. Mean stress relaxation is the consequence of asym-
metric strain cycling. Presence of mean strain produces mean stress
which approaches zero value with cycle progression [3]. Asymmet-
ric stress cycling results in accumulation of progressive directional
permanent strain which is known as ratcheting. Ratcheting and LCF
behavior of SA333 Gr. 6 C–Mn steel are examined in this work.
Normally, engineering materials display cyclic hardening or
softening. Usually, hard materials (i.e. cold deformed, quenched
and tempered) cyclically soften and soft materials (i.e. annealed)
cyclically harden [4–6]. Cyclic hardening/softening is influenced by
number of factors like prior deformation histories (cold deforma-
tion i.e. initial dislocation density and arrangement) [7], chemical
composition and heat treatment (materials phase i.e. planner slip
or wavy slip) [5,6,8], applied stress state (mean stress and stress
amplitude) [5,6], and environment temperature [6] etc. Cyclic
hardening/softening can be characterized by increment/decrement
of stress amplitude and hysteresis loop area in strain controlled
deformation, and increment/decrement of strain amplitude or
decrement/increment of hysteresis loop area in stress controlled
deformation [9]. Cyclic hardening/softening can significantly influ-
ence the cyclic plastic deformation response of materials. Knowing

0921-5093/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.msea.2011.06.009
7342 S.K. Paul et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 7341–7349
the importance of cyclic hardening/softening in cyclic plastic defor-
mation, many researchers have devoted considerable attention to
experimentally understand it in materials like Cupper and Cu–7.5%
Al [4,5], Cupper and Cu–Zn [10], SAE4140 and SAE 1010–1080 [6],
stainless steel [11], and Ferritic and Austenitic Steels [12]. In the
present work, the effect of monotonic pre-straining and step load-
ing (i.e. high amplitude to low amplitude) on subsequent cyclic
hardening/softening and cyclic plastic response of SA333 Gr. 6
C–Mn steel are studied.
Ratcheting strain evolution is a secondary deformation process
which progresses with each cycle. Specimens either elongate or
squeeze due to permanent ratcheting strain accumulation which
results in variation of their cross sectional area [1,9,13,14]. The
true stress–strain behavior (or flow behavior), which is an inherent
property of the material, can change considerably with ratcheting
strain evolution, and hence affect the deformation response of the
material [9,13]. Since true stress controlled ratcheting test is the sci-
entifically correct way to evaluate a material’s ratcheting response
[9,13], it has been adopted in this work.
Ratcheting can deteriorate the performance of a component due
to cumulative effect of fatigue damage which arises from absorp-
tion of plastic strain energy, and damage by permanent strain
accumulation in a particular direction. As a result, further enhance-
ment of fatigue damage occurs by continuous thinning of the
cross-sectional area of the specimen/component. Thus, the com-
bined effect of fatigue damage and directional strain accumulation
can lead to early failure of materials. In this work, influence of load-
ing condition i.e. mean stress and stress amplitude and prior loading
history on ratcheting behavior are examined.
2. Experimental
The SA333 Gr. 6 C–Mn steel used in this study was available
in the form of pipes of 270 mm inner diameter and 320 mm outer
diameter. Its nominal chemical composition (in wt.%) was: C 0.18,
Mn 0.90, Si 0.02, P 0.02 and balance Fe. Cylindrical specimens of
7 mm gauge diameter and 13 mm gauge length were fabricated
from the pipe stock with their axes parallel to the pipe axis. Ten-
sile tests were carried out on the above specimens at a strain rate
of 1 × 10−3 s−1 to determine the mechanical properties. The ten-
sile properties of the SA333 steel are given in Table 1. LCF tests
were conducted at strain amplitudes (i.e. half of total strain range)
of 0.7%, 0.85%, 1.0%, 1.2%, 1.4% and 1.6%. A constant strain rate of
1 × 10−3 s−1 was maintained in all LCF tests and test frequencies
were altered accordingly. True stress controlled ratcheting tests
were conducted with (a) constant stress amplitude (i.e. half of the
total stress range) of 350 MPa and varying mean stresses ranging
from −40 to 120 MPa; (b) fixed mean stress of 80 MPa and vary-
ing stress amplitudes of 310–390 MPa; (c) after different level of
monotonic pre-stressing ratcheting at constant stress amplitude
of 350 MPa and mean stress of 0 and 40 MPa; and (d) at constant
stress amplitude of 350 MPa mean stress intermittently stepped
up from 40 to 120 MPa and stepped down from 120 to 40 MPa, and
at constant mean stress of 80 MPa stress amplitude intermittently
stepped up from 310 to 390 MPa and stepped down from 390 to
310 MPa. Test frequency was altered suitably so that a constant
stress rate of 50 MPa s−1 was maintained in all ratcheting tests.
Table 1
Tensile properties of SA 333 Gr. 6 C–Mn steel.
Yield stress (MPa) Ultimate tensile Uniform Total
stress (MPa) elongation (%) elongation (%)
304 494 17.18 24.53
A 12.5 mm gauge length extensometer with strain measuring
capacity up to +100% (+12.5 mm travel) in tensile direction and
−40% (−5 mm travel) in compressive direction was used to mea-
sure the strain during tests. All experiments were conducted on the
cylindrical specimens by using a 100 kN closed loop servo-electric
testing system (INSTRON make) which was attached to a comput-
erized data acquisition system. Tests were continued till failure and
stress–strain data were acquired throughout the test so as to obtain
∼200 data points in each stress cycle. Experiments were conducted
under software control, running on a computer interfaced to the
control system of the testing machine. For true stress controlled
tests, the feedback from the extensometer was used to compute
true strain and there from the true stress, continuously. Applied
loads were concomitantly altered to maintain true stress amplitude
and mean stress as per the test specification. To avoid buckling dur-
ing ratcheting experimentation with compressive mean stress, low
gauge length (L) to diameter ratio (d) (i.e. L/d < 2.0) was maintained
in all specimens. Of course, to conduct the cyclic plasticity exper-
iments successfully proper machine alignment and low specimen
eccentricity were maintained as far as possible.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Pure LCF behavior
Cyclic hardening and softening during symmetric strain cycling
can be identified by checking the variation of stress amplitude with
the number of loading cycles, which is shown in Fig. 1(a). It is
observed that the material displays cyclic hardening throughout
its LCF life in all strain ranges, but the rate of cyclic harden-
ing alters with the strain range. At strain amplitude of 0.5%, the
stress amplitude does not change considerably with the number
of loading cycles i.e. the material shows neither cyclic harden-
ing nor cyclic softening or negligible cyclic hardening. However,
when strain amplitude is higher than 0.7%, significant cyclic hard-
ening is observed. These results, as revealed in Fig. 1(a) indicate
that cyclic hardening is dependent on applied strain amplitude.
Cyclic hardening and softening can also be explained form plas-
tic strain amplitude versus number of cycle’s plot which is shown
in Fig. 1(b). The plastic strain amplitude does not alter noticeably
with the number of loading cycles at strain amplitude of 0.5% i.e. the
material shows stabilized response. However, when applied total
strain amplitude is higher than 0.7%, decrement of plastic strain
amplitude i.e. cyclic hardening is observed.
Fig. 2(a) shows the experimentally obtained saturated
stress–strain hysteresis loops under fully reversed uniaxial
strain cycling. In this study, half of the number of cycles to
failure was taken as the saturated cycle. It is observed that all
the stress–strain hysteresis loops are tied together at the lower
tips and the loops are translated accordingly. If, the loading part
of the hysteresis loops obtained at different strain amplitudes
follows the same curve and the linear regions of these loops (i.e.
double of cyclic yield stress) are same [15], then it can be said
that the material shows Masing behavior. Therefore, in order to
check whether a material exhibits Masing behavior or not, the
stress–strain hysteresis loops corresponding to different strain
amplitudes should be drawn in such a manner that their lower
tips are tied together. If then, the upper branches of the hysteresis
loops follow the same master curve, the material can be said to
exhibit Masing behavior [12,15]. From Fig. 2(a), it is clear that
SA333 Gr. 6 C–Mn steel displays non-Masing behavior. Moreover,
it is observed that the non-Masing behavior is more significant
when the loading amplitude is large. In order to further confirm
the non-Masing behavior of SA333 Gr. 6 C–Mn steel, the lower tip
of the hysteresis loop obtained at the lowest strain amplitude (in
 S.K. Paul et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 7341–7349 7343

1000 Stran amplitude, %

450 0.5 (a)
900 0.7
0.85
1.0
800 1.2
400 1.4
Stress amplitude, MPa

1.6
700
600

Stress, MPa
350
500
Total Strain amplitude, % 400
300 1.6
1.4 300
1.2
250 1.0 200
0.85
100
0.7 (a)
0.5 (a)
200 0
1 10 100 1000 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
Number of Cycles Strain, %
900 Stran amplitude, %
1.50 0.5
Total Strain 800 0.7
amplitude, % 0.85
1.0
1.6 700 1.2
1.25 1.4 1.4
600 1.6
Plastic strain amplitude, %

1.2
1.0
0.85
500

Stress, MPa
1.00 0.7 400
0.5
300
0.75 200
100
0.50 0
-100 (b)
(b)
0.25 0.0 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2 1.5 1.8 2.1 2.4 2.7 3.0
1 10 100 1000 Strain, %
Number of Cycles
800 Strain amplitude 1.6%

Fig. 1. LCF: (a) stress amplitude variation with number of cycles and (b) plastic 700
strain amplitude variation with number of cycles.
Number of cycle
600 1
this study 0.5%) was translated to the axis (co-ordinate: 0,0) and 2
500 5
all other loops corresponding to higher strain amplitudes were
Stress, MPa

400 10
translated in such a way that the loading branches of the loops and
20
their linear regions matched with that of the loop corresponding to 40
300
the lowest strain amplitude. The outcome of the above procedure 70
is presented in Fig. 2(b), which clearly indicates that the strain 200 100
range effect or non-Masing behavior is due to change in the linear
region of the hysteresis loops (i.e. cyclic yield stress). 100
In order to understand cyclic hardening behavior a procedure 0
similar to that adopted for generating Fig. 2(b) was followed. How-
-100 (c)
ever, in this case, instead of saturated loops at different strain
amplitudes, hysteresis loops corresponding to different cycles of
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
1.6% strain amplitude controlled LCF tests were used. Fig. 2(c), Strain, %
which shows the outcome of this procedure, clearly demonstrates
that increase in peak stress with number of cycles is due to Fig. 2. LCF: (a) stable hysteresis loop at different strain ranges: lower tips of hys-
the increase in the linear region of the loops or yield stress (i.e. teresis loops are tied to a common point, (b) stable hysteresis loop at different strain
ranges: lower tip of hysteresis loop of 0.5% strain amplitude translated to axis and
isotropic hardening). One of the major factors that control the abil-
other hysteresis loops are translated in such a way that upper branches and linear
ity of a material to cyclically harden/soften is its microstructural regions are matched, and (c) hysteresis loop at different cycles of strain amplitude
constituents and their participation in the deformation process. of 1.6%: lower tip of first cycle’s hysteresis loop translated to axis and other hys-
The microstructural constituents here refers to relative volume teresis loops are translated in such a way that upper branches and linear regions are
fractions of different phases present in the material, their crystal- matched.

lographic structure and the number of slip systems available, the

dislocation density, and the size, shape and distribution of second
phase particles [4,12]. As a general, materials cyclic hardening can
be explained by observations made in previous research articles;
7344 S.K. Paul et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 7341–7349

continuous evolution of dislocation arrangement was observed in 550

(a)
TEM micrograph with increasing number of cycles which can be Strain amplitude 1.0%

(area correction done after pre-straining)

expressed step wise: increase in dislocation density, development single step
5.75% pre-straining
of wall structure which first exhibits broad a walls consisting of 500
7.8% pre-straining
disorderly arranged dislocations (mainly edge-dislocation dipoles), 14.0% pre-straining

Stress amplitude, MPa

the walls become more orderly and thinner and a transition to
a more or less equiaxed cell structure [5,8,12,16]. Types of inte- 450
rior fatigue induced dislocation structure are dependent on strain
amplitude, number of cycles applied, materials slip system i.e. pla-
nar/wavy slip etc. [10,17].
400

3.2. Effect of tensile pre-strain on subsequent LCF behavior 350

Variation of cyclic hardening/softening behavior with tensile

pre-straining is shown in Fig. 3(a). During single step (i.e. contin- 300
uous/pure) 1.0% strain amplitude controlled LCF test, the stress 1 10 100 1000
amplitude is found to increase with number of cycles i.e. cyclic Number of cycles
hardening occurs throughout the fatigue life of the material. On the
Strain amplitude 1.0 % (b)

(area correction done after pre-straining)

other hand, when the material is pre-strainined and then subjected 500 Pure LCF
to LCF tests, the stress amplitude is found to decrease with cycling LCF done after pre-straining of
6.75 %
i.e. cyclic softening occurs. Moreover, the stress amplitude of the 7.8 %
first cycle and cyclic softening are found to be directly proportional 14 %
250
to the amount of pre-straining.

Stress, MPa
Plastic deformation in any material is the consequence of
dislocation movement. Hardening is achieved when disloca-
0
tion movement is hindered by dislocation–dislocation interaction
and/or dislocation–particle interaction. Tensile pre-straining sets
off dislocation multiplication which leads to strain hardening, a
phenomenon generally observed during tensile tests [18]. Strain
-250
cycling after tensile pre-straining results in rearrangement and
annihilation of dislocations [7,19] which leads to reduction in dis-
location density and hence cyclic softening. -500
Second cycle
Second cycle and saturated cycle (i.e. half of number of cycles
to failure) hysteresis loops corresponding to different pre-straining -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0
conditions are shown in Fig. 3(b) and (c) respectively. It is observed Strain, %
500
that the difference in hysteresis loops for the saturated cycles are Strain amplitude 1.0 % (c)
Pure LCF
insignificant, whereas for the second cycle the difference is huge. LCF done after pre-straining of
(area correction done after pre-straining)

Moreover, the hysteresis loops for the second cycle are not sym- 6.75 %
7.8 %
metric in the tensile and compressive directions; the loops show 250 14 %
higher hardening in the tensile direction.
Stress, MPa

3.3. Effect of high to low loading sequences on successive LCF

0
behavior

Similar to tensile pre-straining, cyclic hardening/softening

behavior also varies with step loading from high to low strain -250
amplitude, as shown in Fig. 4. Single step LCF with 0.7% strain
amplitude shows cyclic hardening throughout the fatigue life of Nf /2 th cycle
the material, whereas 0.7% strain controlled LCF with 20 cycles Nf = Number of cycles to failure
pre-LCF shows cyclic softening in the initial few cycles followed -500
-1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0
by mild cyclic hardening in the subsequent cycles. Dislocation
Strain, %
multiplication and their network formation during cycling with
higher strain amplitude [7] influence the subsequent lower strain Fig. 3. Pre-straining of 0.0%, 5.75%, 7.8% and 14.0% followed by LCF with 1.0% strain
amplitude LCF response. Therefore, it can be said that during step amplitude: (a) stress amplitude variation with number of cycles, (b) second cycle’s
loading from high to low strain amplitude, the loading history hysteresis loop, and (c) saturated cycle’s hysteresis loop.
memory of the material affects its LCF response. However, this
loading history memory gradually gets erased as cycling proceeds hysteresis loop i.e. half of the summation of maximum true strain
and the material’s stress–strain response approaches its stable (εmax ) and minimum true strain (εmin ) of that loop.
state.
1
εr = (εmax + εmin ) (1)
2
3.4. Pure ratcheting behavior
Amount of reduction in area can be calculated from the volume
incompressibility condition [9,13], and is expressed as:
Progressive accumulation of permanent strain in a particular
direction due to asymmetric stress cycling is known as ratcheting. A er
= (2)
True ratcheting strain (εr ) can be defined as the mean strain of a A 1 + er
 S.K. Paul et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 7341–7349 7345

420 45
20 cycles 1.6 % LCF followed by 0.7 % LCF Mean stress 80 MPa (a)
Single step 0.7 % LCF 40 Stress amplitude
310 MPa
400 35 350 MPa

True ratcheting strain, %

390 MPa
Stress amplitude, MPa

30
380 25

20
360
15

10
340
5

0
320 1 10 100 1000 10000
1 10 100 1000
Number of cycles Number of cycles
35
Fig. 4. 20 cycles LCF with 1.6% strain amplitude followed by LCF with 0.7% strain
Stress amplitude 350 MPa (b)
30 Mean stress
amplitude: stress amplitude variation with number of cycles during LCF with 0.7%
strain amplitude control test. 25 120 MPa
80 MPa
20

True ratcheting strain, %

40 MPa
where, A is the original cross sectional area and A is the reduction 15 0 MPa
in cross sectional area at an engineering ratcheting strain of er . -40 MPa
An engineering stress (i.e. load) controlled ratcheting experi- 10
ment was conducted with a mean stress of 80 MPa and a stress 5
amplitude of 310 MPa. The resultant tensile engineering ratcheting
0
strain accumulation before fracture of the specimen, was recorded
to be greater than 50%. This accumulation of more than 50% tensile -5
strain resulted in a 1.5 times hike in true stress level and the corre- -10
sponding reduction in cross sectional area was calculated (using
Eq. (2)) to be 33.33%. Moreover, the maximum true stress and -15
stress amplitude were also found to increase in a similar fashion -20
with engineering ratcheting strain. The huge engineering ratchet- 1 10 100 1000 10000
ing strain accumulation resulted in such a high value of maximum Number of cycles
true stress that the specimen failed by necking rather than the
expected mechanism of crack initiation and propagation. However, 12000 0.8
Number of cycles (c)
unlike true stress, the engineering stress remained constant. Plastic strain amplitude
Hence, considering that true stress–strain behavior is an inher- 10000 0.7
ent material property and true stress changes drastically with

Plastic strain amplitude, %

0.6
Number of cycles

ratcheting strain accumulation in an engineering stress controlled

8000
test, it is apparent that engineering stress controlled ratcheting test
is probably not the technically correct approach to assess ratcheting 0.5
response of materials. Therefore, in this work, true stress controlled 6000
ratcheting test procedure was adopted for investigation. 0.4
Fig. 5(a) shows the variation of true ratcheting strain as a func- 4000
tion of number of cycles for three different stress amplitudes and a 0.3
constant mean stress of 80 MPa. Fig. 5(b), on the other hand, shows
2000 0.2
the variation of true ratcheting strain as a function of number of
cycles for different mean stress levels but a constant stress ampli-
tude of 350 MPa. No shakedown in ratcheting strain evolution is 0 0.1
found in the above combinations of mean stresses and stress ampli- -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Mean stress, MPa
tudes. Ratcheting strain increases and ratcheting life decreases with
increase in stress amplitude, whereas ratcheting life and ratcheting Fig. 5. True stress controlled ratcheting: (a) true ratcheting strain as a function of
strain, both increases with increase in mean stress. number of cycles for constant mean stress of 80 MPa and stress amplitude of 310,
The improvement in ratcheting life with increase in mean stress 350 and 390 MPa, (b) true ratcheting strain versus number of cycles for constant
can be explained by quantification of saturated (i.e. half of num- stress amplitude of 350 MPa and mean stress of −40, 0, 40, 80 and 120 MPa, and (c)
number of cycles to failure, saturated plastic strain amplitude versus mean stress:
ber of cycles to failure) plastic strain amplitude. This parameter is
constant stress amplitude of 350 MPa and mean stress of −40, 0, 40, 80 and 120 MPa.
plotted as a function of mean stress in Fig. 5(c). It is observed that
saturated plastic strain amplitude is high at zero mean stress con-
dition, but reduce with increasing mean stress (either in tensile or
compressive direction). Saturated plastic strain amplitude has been
used as damage parameter [20] and hardening parameters [9] by
many researchers. Decrease in plastic strain amplitude indicates
7346 S.K. Paul et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 7341–7349

0.25 dislocation density and their arrangement is to subject the material

Mean stress 80 MPa to tensile pre-stressing [7–19]. In view of the above, it is expected
Stress amplitude
390 MPa that tensile pre-stressing will also affect ratcheting response and
0.20
350 MPa hence this was investigated in the present work.
True ratcheting strain rate, %

310 MPa Fig. 7 shows the stress–strain response of a two-step tension-

0.15 compression loading. In the first step, the material was subjected
to monotonic loading i.e. pre-stressing and in the second step it
was subjected to stress cycling with stress amplitude of 350 MPa.
0.10
Fig. 7(a) shows that stress cycling with zero mean stress results
in a very small amount of ratcheting strain accumulation. How-
0.05 ever, when tensile pre-stressing is performed, ratcheting strain
accumulation starts in the compressive direction. Higher tensile
pre-stressing is found to result in higher ratcheting strain evolution
0.00
in the compressive direction.
(a) Pure ratcheting (i.e. without any tensile pre-stressing) response
-0.05 corresponding to a mean stress of 40 MPa is compared with the
1 10 100 1000 10000 ratcheting response (at a mean stress of 40 MPa and a stress ampli-
Number of cycles tude of 350 MPa) after tensile pre-stressing at 470 MPa in Fig. 7(b)
and (c). Whereas Fig. 7(b) compares the ratcheting strain evolu-
Stress amplitude of 350 MPa tion with number of cycles, Fig. 7(c) compares the shapes of the
0.15 Mean stress stable (assuming half of the number of cycles to failure) hystere-
0 MPa
40 MPa sis loops. Normally, ratcheting strain evolution takes place in the
True ratcheting strain rate, %

80 MPa
0.10
120 MPa
-40 MPa
0.05
0.00
-0.05
-0.10
1 10 100 1000
Number of cycles
Fig. 6. True ratcheting strain rate versus number of cycles for (a) constant mean
stress of 80 MPa and stress amplitude of 310, 350 and 390 MPa and (b) constant
stress amplitude of 350 MPa and mean stress of −40, 0, 40, 80 and 120 MPa.
that the damage accumulation per cycle is low and this explains
the observed increase in ratcheting life.
Though from Fig. 5(a) and (b), it can be said that ratcheting rate
decreases with increase in the number of loading cycles, a better
way to observe ratcheting rate decay is to plot the ratcheting rate
against the number loading cycles as is done in Fig. 6(a) and (b).
Whereas in Fig. 6(a) the mean stress is constant and the stress
amplitude is varied, in Fig. 6(b), the stress amplitude is maintained
at a constant level and the mean stress is varied. From these figures,
it is clear that ratcheting rate is sensitive to the applied stresses.
The initial ratcheting strain rate and rate of decay of ratcheting
strain rate is higher for higher stress amplitude or mean stress. This
behavior is similar to that observed in 1070 steel [21].
3.5. Effect of tensile pre-stress on consequent ratcheting behavior
Cyclic plastic deformation is a path dependent phenomenon.
This implies that stress–strain response during cyclic plastic
loading extensively depends upon loading conditions such as
stress/strain amplitude, mean stress/strain, waveform shape, num-
ber of loading axes, phase difference in multiaxiality and previous
loading history, etc. This path dependency of cyclic plastic defor-
mation is related to dislocation dynamics. Dislocation movement
produces plastic deformation, and dislocation density and their
arrangement change with loading conditions. One way of altering
direction of mean stress i.e. tensile mean stress causes tensile ratch-
eting strain and vice versa [1,9,13,21,22]. However, from Fig. 7(b)
it is observed that though a tensile mean stress of 40 MPa results
in tensile ratcheting strain accumulation in pure ratcheting condi-
tion, tensile pre-stressing at 470 MPa followed by ratcheting with
40 MPa tensile mean stress results in ratcheting strain evolution in
the compressive direction in the initial few cycles, followed by ten-
sile ratcheting strain accumulation in the subsequent cycles. On the
other hand, there is hardly any noticeable difference in the shapes
of the saturated hysteresis loops obtained under conditions of pure
ratcheting and ratcheting after tensile pre-stressing, as is observed
(b)
from Fig. 7(c).
10000 The ratcheting strain rate is plotted as a function of number of
loading cycles in Fig. 7(d). During pure ratcheting, ratcheting strain
rate is observed to decrease with increasing number of cycles. The
rate of this decrease is quite high initially, but gradually drops down
in the subsequent cycles. When tensile pre-stressing precedes
ratcheting, the ratcheting strain rate changes from compressive to
tensile direction with increasing number of cycles. With further
cycling, the tensile ratcheting strain rate gradually decreases. From
the above observations, it is clear that tensile pre-stressing signif-
icantly affects the evolution of ratcheting strain rate with number
of loading cycles.
3.6. Ratcheting behavior under stepped loading
In order to examine the dependence of ratcheting behavior on
prior cyclic loading history, four experiments were conducted, the
details of which are presented in Table 2. During the tests, load-
ing was carried out in three steps. In the first and second steps,
cycling was performed up to 25% of the number of cycles required
by the material to fail under identical test conditions and then in
the third step, cycling was conducted up to failure of the material.
For each loading step, life fraction was calculated as the ratio of the
applied number of cycles to the number of cycles required to fail
in a pure ratcheting test conducted under the same loading condi-
tions. The total life fraction was then estimated as the summation
of life fractions of individual steps.
Fatemi and Yang [23] described the modeling of cumulative
fatigue damage in their review paper in six major categories: linear
damage rules; nonlinear damage curve and two-stage linearization
approaches; life curve modification methods; approaches based
on crack growth concepts: continuum damage mechanics mod-
els: and energy-based theories. All those models have specific use,
 S.K. Paul et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 7341–7349 7347

750
(a) Monotonic pre-stressing (c)
4 470 MPa
followed by ratcheting
True ratcheting strain, % 2 600 Pure ratcheting

True stress, MPa

0
450
-2
300
-4 Monotonic pre-stressing
470 MPa
390 MPa
-6 0 MPa 150
Pre-stressing followed by ratcheting
Stress amplitude 350 MPa Stress amplitude 350 MPa
-8 Mean stress 0 MPa Mean stress 40 MPa
0
1 10 100 1000 0.00 0.15 0.30 0.45 0.60 0.75 0.90
Number of cycles True strain, %
11 0.07
Ratcheting after pre stressing (b) Stress amplitude 350 MPa
10 pre stressing done at 470 MPa 0.06 Mean stress 40 MPa
(d)
9 Pure ratcheting Pure ratcheting

Ture ratcheting strain rate, %

0.05 Ratcheting after pre-stressing
True ratcheting strain,%

8 Pre-stressing is done at 470 MPa

0.04
7
0.03
6
0.02
5
0.01
4
0.00
3
-0.01
2
-0.02
1
0 Mean 40 MPa -0.03
Amplitude 350 MPa -0.04
-1
1 10 100 1000 1 10 100 1000
Number of cycles Number of cycles

Fig. 7. Effect of tensile pre-stressing on subsequent ratcheting: true stress controlled ratcheting is conducted at stress amplitude of 350 MPa: (a) true ratcheting strain versus
number of cycles: pre-stressing are done at 470 and 390 MPa, and stress cycling is conducted with mean stress of 0 MPa, (b) true ratcheting strain versus number of cycles:
pre-stressing are done at 470 MPa, and ratcheting is conducted with mean stress of 40 MPa, (c) saturated hysteresis loop during stress cycling with mean stress of 40 MPa and
stress amplitude of 350 MPa: pure ratcheting and pre-stressing at 470 MPa followed by ratcheting, and (d) true ratcheting strain rate versus number of cycles: pre-stressing
are done at 470 MPa, and ratcheting is conducted with mean stress of 40 MPa.

none of them enjoys universal acceptance [23]. Depending upon ratcheting strain rate is plotted as a function of number of cycles in
the complexity of stepped loading problem, the damage evolu- Fig. 8(b).
tion curve deviates from linear damage accumulation curve and Fig. 8(a) shows that progressive ratcheting strain accumula-
follow power law or other complex curve. In this work, objective tion occurs throughout the life of the material. Ratcheting strain
is to establish that the fatigue life is improving or deteriorating rate, on the other hand decreases with increasing number of cycles
in different stepped loading conditions, not to determine fatigue (Fig. 8(b)), like in case of pure ratcheting strain test. From the above
life in different stepped loading conditions by linear damage rule. observations, it can be stated that the ratcheting response of a mate-
Therefore, linear summation of life fraction is used in this work rial and its life are not considerably altered when it is subjected to
only for comparison of fatigue life in different stepped loading step loading with increasing mean stress. This implies that ratchet-
conditions, if linear summation of life fraction is more than one ing history corresponding to lower mean stress has very little effect
then fatigue life improves or else if less than one then fatigue life on subsequent ratcheting with higher mean stress.
deteriorates. The second set of experiments corresponds to step loading with
The first set of experiments, as described in Table 2, corresponds decreasing mean stress shown in Tables 2 and 3 (Test 2). From
to step loading with increasing mean stress. The evolution of true Table 3 (Test 2) it is observed that ratcheting strain accumulation
ratcheting strain with cycling is portrayed in Fig. 8(a), and the true ceases after the mean stress is decreased to 80 MPa in the second

Table 2
Step loading: loading conditions (unit: MPa) with number of cycles.

Steps no. Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4

Test con. Cy no. Test con. Cy no. Test con. Cy no. Test con. Cy no.

Step 1 40 ± 350 776 120 ± 350 2646 80 ± 310 2181 80 ± 390 1182
Step 2 80 ± 350 1832 80 ± 350 1832 80 ± 350 1832 80 ± 350 1832
Step 3 120 ± 350 4584 40 ± 350 7237 80 ± 390 2191 80 ± 310 15,890
Total life fraction 0.941 2.832 0.964 2.32
7348 S.K. Paul et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 7341–7349

Table 3
Step loading: loading conditions (unit: MPa) with ratcheting strain (εr , %) and hysteresis loop area (HLA, MJ/m3 ).

Steps no. Test 2 Test 4

Test con. εr (%) in each HLA (MJ/m3 ) in HLA (MJ/m3 ) Test con. εr (%) in each HLA (MJ/m3 ) in HLA (MJ/m3 )
step single step test in each step step single step test in each step

Step 1 120 ± 350 25.54 0.94 0.94 80 ± 390 26.87 2.15 2.15
Step 2 80 ± 350 0.34 1.40 1.03 80 ± 350 0.8 1.40 1.02
Step 3 40 ± 350 0.72 2.34 1.12 80 ± 310 0.23 0.99 0.45
Total ratcheting 26.6 27.9
strain, %

step and to 40 MPa in the third step. During ratcheting, two damage
mechanisms, viz. fatigue and ratcheting strain evolution operate
simultaneously, and their combined effect cause the material to
fail early. Since in step loading with decreasing mean stress, com-
plete cessation of one of the damage mechanisms i.e. directional
ratcheting strain accumulation occurs from the second loading step
onward, failure gets delayed and thus a very high total life frac-
tion of 2.83 (Table 2, Test 2) is achieved. The improved fatigue life
of the material could also have resulted from the enhancement of
the deformation resistance of the material or hardening due to the
prior stress controlled cycling with higher mean stress. This hard-
ening, in turn could have played a role in preventing the ratcheting
strain accumulation in the stress cycling steps with smaller mean
stress. In continuous i.e. pure ratcheting condition, the hysteresis
loop area (HLA) appears to get reduced on increasing the mean
stress shown in Table 3, which denotes hardening. During decreas-
ing mean stress step loading, in the first step ratcheting with higher
mean stress results in squeezing of the loop or hardening but for
subsequent ratcheting with lower mean stress, almost the same
loop size is maintained.
Similar to step loading with increasing and decreasing mean
stress, step loading with increasing and decreasing stress ampli-
tude was also examined. The third set of experiments corresponds
to step loading with increasing stress amplitude. Fig. 9(a) shows
the resultant accumulation of true ratcheting strain with increasing
number of cycles. Fig. 9(b) on the other hand shows the variation
of true ratcheting strain rate with number of cycles for the three
different stress amplitudes chosen for this study.

35
(a)
35 (a)
30
30
25
True ratcheting strain, %
True ratcheting strain, %

25
20
20
15
15
10 Mean stress 80 MPa
10 Stress amplitude 350 MPa
Stress amplitude
Mean stress
310 MPa
40 MPa 5
5 350 MPa
80 MPa
390 MPa
120 MPa
0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Number of cycles Number of cycles
0.075 0.07
Step loading (b)
Step loading test (b)
Mean stress 80 MPa
Stress amplitude 350 MPa
Mean stress
0.06 Stress amplitude
310 MPa
40 MPa
True ratcheting strain rate, %
True ratcheting strain rate, %

350 MPa
80 MPa 0.05 390 MPa
120 MPa
0.050
0.04

0.03
0.025
0.02

0.01

0.000 0.00
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Number of cycles Number of cycles

Fig. 8. Increasing mean stress step loading: constant stress amplitude of 350 MPa Fig. 9. Increasing stress amplitude step loading: constant mean stress of 80 MPa
and mean stress changes in ascending order of 40, 80 and 120 MPa: (a) true ratchet- and stress amplitude changes in ascending order of 310, 350 and 390 MPa: (a) true
ing strain versus number of cycles and (b) true ratcheting strain rate versus number ratcheting strain versus number of cycles and (b) true ratcheting strain rate versus
of cycles. number of cycles.
 S.K. Paul et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 528 (2011) 7341–7349
The fourth and last set of experiments corresponds to step
loading with decreasing stress amplitude. Table 3 (Test 4) shows
that ratcheting strain evolution becomes negligible in the second
step and eventually stops completely in the third step of loading.
Furthermore, the total life fraction for this step loading test was
calculated to be 2.32 (Table 2, Test 4), which is quite high. All these
trends are similar to those observed in the step loading tests with
decreasing mean stress. Cessation of ratcheting strain accumula-
tion after decrease in stress amplitude amounts to suppression of
one of the damage mechanisms of ratcheting i.e. directional ratch-
eting strain accumulation, and only the fatigue damage mechanism
remains active. This leads to the observed increase in total life frac-
tion and hence life of the material. From the variation of hysteresis
loop area (HLA) shown in Table 3 (Test 4), it is evident that harden-
ing during stress cycling with high stress amplitude significantly
affects the hardening behavior during subsequent stress cycling
with low stress amplitude.
Therefore from the step loading tests with decreasing mean
stress or decreasing stress amplitude, it can be concluded that
hardening during stress cycling with high maximum stress in the
initial step alters hardening behavior and ratcheting response in
the subsequent steps where stress cycling is carried out with lower
maximum stress.
4. Conclusions
Experimental studies were carried out on SA 333 Gr. 6 C–Mn
steel to evaluate LCF and ratcheting behavior. Based on the analysis
of test data, the following conclusion can be drawn:
(a) Cyclic hardening/softening in LCF depends upon strain ampli-
tude.
(b) Strain range effect (non-Masing behavior) and cyclic hardening
are due to change in the linear region of hysteresis loop (i.e.
yield stress).
(c) Previous loading histories like pre-straining and high to
low step loading alter cyclic hardening/softening behavior in
successive LCF. Tensile pre-straining results in asymmetric
hysteresis loop shape in tension and compression. During pre-
straining, cyclic softening is observed throughout the life of
the material, albeit the softening is rapid initially. On the other
hand, step loading from high to low strain amplitude resulted
in cyclic softening in the initial few cycles followed by normal
cyclic hardening in the subsequent cycles.
(d) True stress varies uncontrollably during engineering stress con-
trolled ratcheting test.
(e) True ratcheting strain accumulation in continuous loading
depends upon true mean stress and stress amplitude.
7349
(f) True ratcheting strain rate decreases with number of cycles, the
rate of decrease being higher in the initial few cycles.
(g) Ratcheting strain accumulation ceases and life enhances when
the material is subjected to stress cycling with low mean
stress/stress amplitude after prior cycling with high mean
stress/stress amplitude. In comparison, no significant change in
ratcheting strain evolution and life is occurs when the material
is subjected to step loading with increasing mean stress/stress
amplitude. Decrease in maximum stress level in step load-
ing tests influences the hardening behavior, ratcheting strain
evolution and life in succeeding steps, whereas increase in max-
imum stress level in step loading tests have negligible influence
in succeeding steps.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank The Director, National Met-
allurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, India for providing all the
necessary facilities in carrying out this study. Authors would also
like to acknowledge the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai,
India, for supplying the material and Dr. Monideepa Mukherjee,
Researcher, Tata Steel Limited, Jamshedpur, India for her valuable
comment.
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