Small punch creep test in a 316 austenitic stainless steel

The small punch creep test was used to evaluate the creep behavior of a 316 type austenitic stainless steel at temperatures of 650, 675 and 700 °C and loads from 199 to 512 N using a creep tester with a specimen size of 10 × 10 × 0.3 mm under an argon atmosphere. The small punch creep curves shows the three stages found in the creep curves of the conventional uniaxial test. The time to rupture decreases as the testing temperature and load increase. The secondary stage is also reduced with the increase in test load. An intergranular ductile fracture mode was observed at a testing temperature of 700 °C, while intergranular brittle mode at 650 °C which is associated with the absence of abundant precipitation at 650 °C.