In this work, the fatigue behaviour of 316 stainless steel is studied with different critical plane models. Seven cylindrical samples were used for the study, being subjected to different complex loading paths, generating combined stresses along the axial and transversal sample directions, these being: individual axial stress, individual hoop stress, alternating axial and hoop stress, a proportional combination of axial and hoop stress, and a non-proportional combination of L-shaped and square-shaped axial and hoop stress. The fatigue analysis is performed using five critical plane models; named Fatemi-Socie, Varvani-Farahani, Gan-Wu-Zhong, Liu I and Liu II. The models were assessed based on their fatigue life and crack angle prediction capacity. The Gan-Wu-Zhong recently proposed critical plane model was examined and provided acceptable results for the multiaxial loads tested on 316 steel. Nevertheless, Fatemi-Socie produced the most accurate results in terms of cracking orientation and Liu II gave the best fatigue life predictions.
