Ratchetting of viscoplastic material with cyclic softening, part 1: experiments on modified 9Cr–1Mo steel

Uniaxial and multiaxial ratchetting tests were conducted at temperatures between 200 and 600 °C on modified 9Cr–1Mo steel, which exhibits both viscoplastic and cyclic softening behavior. Anomalous behavior was observed in the stress-controlled uniaxial ratchetting tests; the material exhibited outstanding ratchetting in the tensile direction under zero mean stress. Under the uniaxial conditions, the ratchetting deformation significantly depended on the loading rate and hold time in addition to parameters such as the maximum stress and stress ratio. The uniaxial ratchetting was also accelerated to a great extent when cyclic deformation was given before the ratchetting tests. Under the multiaxial conditions, the ratchetting depended on the steady stress, cyclic strain range and strain rate. The ratchetting progressed faster as the steady stress or strain range became larger, or the strain rate became smaller, as expected. Monotonic compression tests were carried out to investigate the reason for the rachetting under no mean stress. Strain range change tests were also conducted to investigate the effect of strain range on the cyclic softening behavior of the material in detail.