On multiaxial creep-fatigue considering the non-proportional loading effect: Constitutive modeling, deformation mechanism, and life prediction

In this paper, a series of strain-controlled fatigue and creep-fatigue tests under proportional/non-proportional loadings were performed for type 304 stainless steel at 873 K. Then, post-test metallographic observations were performed through the electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) combinative characterizations. In this aspect, the wavy slip dominated deformation mechanism under non-proportional loadings was considered as the essence for additional hardening, while the introduction of creep resulted in further microstructure evolutions by facilitating recrystallization. Afterward, a unified viscoplasticity constitutive model was proposed to simulate the cyclic stress-strain responses, in which an additional hardening parameter combined with a loading-path parameter was used to describe the cyclic hardening curves. Concurrently, stress triaxiality was introduced to provide accurate descriptions for the stress relaxation behavior. Semi-physical continuum damage models involving multiaxial damage factor and non-proportional strain energy parameter was proposed to predict the multiaxial creep-fatigue damage evaluations. Good agreements between experimental data and simulated results were achieved with the help of the proposed numerical procedures.