Austenitic
stainless steel is a vital material in various industries, with excellent heat and corrosion resistance, and is widely used in high-temperature environments as a component for internal combustion engines of transportation vehicles or power plant piping. These components or structures are required to be durable against severe load conditions and oxidation damage in high-temperature environments during their service life. In this regard, in particular, oxidation damage and
fatigue life are very important influencing factors, while existing studies have focused on materials and fracture behavior. In order to ensure the
fatigue life of austenitic
stainless steel, therefore, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of the fracture process with microstructural change including oxidation damage according to the temperature condition. In this work, low-cycle
fatigue tests were performed at various temperatures to determine the oxidation damage together with the
fatigue life of austenitic
stainless steel containing
niobium. The characteristics of oxidation damage were analyzed through microstructure observations including scanning electron microscope, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and the X-ray diffraction patterns. In addition, a unified low-cycle
fatigue life model coupled with the fracture mechanism-based lifetime and the Neu-Sehitoglu model for considering the influence of damage by oxidation was proposed. After the low-cycle
fatigue tests at temperatures of 200-800 °C and strain amplitudes of 0.4% and 0.5%, the accuracy of the proposed model was verified by comparing the test results with the predicted
fatigue life, and the validity by using the oxidation damage parameters for Mar-M247 was confirmed through sensitivity analysis of the parameters applied in the oxidation damage model. As a result, the average thickness of the
oxide layer and the penetration length of the
oxide intrusion were predicted with a mean error range of 14.7% and 13%, respectively, and the low-cycle
fatigue life was predicted with a ±2 factor accuracy at the measurement temperatures under all experimental conditions.