Residual stress relaxation of deep-rolled austenitic steel

Residual stress and work hardening relaxation during thermal exposure and isothermal fatigue at elevated temperatures were investigated. High compressive residual stress and a work-hardened layer were produced by deep rolling. Furnace annealing was used for thermal exposure. Pull-push tests with no mean stress were used for isothermal fatigue. The instability of residual stress by thermal and mechanical loading was detected. The thermal and mechanical fraction of residual stress relaxation during isothermal fatigue at elevated temperatures were determined. (c) 2007 Acta Materialia, Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.