Fatigue cracking of type 304 sheet in pasteurizer water

摘要

Cracking has been observed in the beams of pasteurizing machines made of type 304 stainless steel. In order to gain greater insight into the problem, samples of type 304 were fatigue tested in a simulated pasteurizer environment. The cracking produced in these samples was compared with that produced by fatiguing in air and in distilled water, as well as with that observed on the pasteurizers themselves. It was concluded that while the wet environment of the pasteurizer might change the mechanism of cracking at lower values of ΔK, it has little effect on crack propagation at values of ΔK associated with Stage II (Paris regime) fatigue. Cracking in the simulated pasteurizer environment was very similar to that produced in distilled water.