Experiments and Predictions of Large Deformation and Failure in Thermomechanical Loading Environments

The response of 304L stainless steel to combined mechanical and thermal loadings is studied to enable the development of validated computational simulation methods for predicting deformation and failure in coupled thermomechanical environments. Experimental coupling was accomplished on axisymmetric tubular specimens that were mechanically loaded by internal pressurization and thermally loaded asymmetrically by side radiant heating. Mechanical characterization experiments of the 304L stainless steel tube material was completed for development of a thermal elastic-plastic material constitutive model used in the finite element simulations of the validation experiments. The design and implementation of the experimental methodology and results of preliminary experiments were presented at 2010 SEM Annual Conference [1, 2].