Characterisation of Deformation and Damage in a Steam Turbine Steel Subjected to Low Cycle Fatigue

The increased use of renewable energy pushes steam turbines toward a more frequent operation schedule. Consequently, components must endure more severe fatigue loads which, in turn, requires an understanding of the deformation and damage mechanisms under high-temperature cyclic loading. Based on this, low cycle fatigue tests were performed on a creep resistant steel, FB2, used in ultra-supercritical steam turbines. The fatigue tests were performed in strain control with 0.8-1.2 % strain range and at temperatures of 400 °C and 600 °C. The tests at 600 °C were run with and without dwell time. The deformation mechanisms at different temperatures and strain ranges were characterised by scanning electron microscopy and by quantifying the amount of low angle grain boundaries. The quantification of low angle grain boundaries was done by electron backscatter diffraction. Microscopy revealed that specimens subjected to 600 °C showed signs of creep damage, in the form of voids close to fracture surface, regardless of whether the specimen had been exposed to dwell time or been purely cycled. In addition, the amount of low angle grain boundaries was lower at 600 °C than at 400 °C. The study indicates that a significant amount of the inelastic strain comes from creep strain as opposed to being all plastic strain