Residual stress relaxation in the carburized case of austenitic stainless steel under alternating loading

Low-temperature gaseous carburization is an effective thermochemical surface modification process for austenitic stainless steels. The treatment results in the development of a carbon-enriched case with high hardness, improved localized corrosion performance and high compressive residual stress, that in principle improves the fatigue performance. Residual stress relaxation occurs during cyclic loading and the residual stress relaxation in carburized case on 316L austenitic stainless steel under cyclic loading was investigated with rotating bending fatigue testing. Two stages of residual stress relaxation in the surface region were identified: an instantaneous and large relaxation in the first cycle followed by gradual relaxation with the number of fatigue cycles. Depth-resolved analysis of residual stress showed that relaxation mainly occurs in the surface-near region of the carburized case. The rate of stress relaxations depends on the amplitude of the alternating load. The occurrence of plastic accommodation provoked by lattice expansion and the additional plastic deformation imposed during loading is decisive for stress relaxation. A model of surface residual stress evolution for carburized case under cyclic loading was established, which could accurately describe the relaxation.