DIC-aided biaxial fatigue tests of a 304L steel

Several biaxial fatigue tests are conducted up to 10⁶ cycles at room temperature in the context of a collaboration LMT-Cachan / EDF / AREVA / SNECMA / CEA. Malteses cross specimens of 304L steel, designed to initiate crack in the bulk, are loaded by a triaxial testing machine. A Digital Image Correlation technique is used to measure strain during loading and detect crack initiation early. A special optical assembly and a stroboscopic sampling method are set up in this purpose. Several types of loadings are performed: equibiaxial with a loading ratio R = 0.1, equibiaxial with loading ratio R = -1, pseudo uniaxial (cyclic loading at R= 0.1 in one direction and constant loading in the other). First results are commented.