Rising global energy consumption and the increase in emissions of greenhouse gases (e.g. CO2) causing global warming, make need for more sustainable power generation. This could be accomplished by increasing the efficiency of the biomass-fired power plants, which is achieved by increasing the temperature and pressure. In addition, flexible generation of power is critical if only renewable power generation is to be achieved and this will increase the number of start-and stop cycles. Cyclic condition in a long-term high temperature environment is an operation process that such materials must withstand, in order to satisfy the needs for future power generation.

Commonly austenitic stainless steel are used for critical components of power plants. Because of future change in operating conditions, further investigations are needed to verify that the demands on safety for cyclic long-term usage is fulfilled. This work includes investigation of two commercial austenitic steels: Esshete 1250 and Sanicro 25. The materials were exposed to thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) in strain control under In-Phase and Out-of-Phase conditions and main testing temperature ranges of 100-650°C and 100-800°C respectively. Some of the specimens were pre-aged to simulate prolonged service condition. Mechanical test data were obtained and analysed in order to define the TMF performance of the investigated alloys. The differences in performance were discussed in relation to mechanical and microstructural characterization.