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Single-crystal nickel-base superalloys frequently experience two distinct fatigue crack growth modes. It has been observed that, under certain conditions, cracks transition from a path perpendicular to the loading direction to a crystallographic slip plane. As crystallographic cracking is associated with an increased fatigue crack growth rate, it is important to be able to predict when this transition occurs. In this work three different criteria for crystallographic cracking based on resolved anisotropic stress intensity factors are evaluated in a three-dimensional finite element context. The criteria were calibrated and evaluated using isothermal fatigue experiments on two different specimen geometries. It is suggested by the results, that a threshold value of a resolved shear stress intensity factor can act as a conservative criterion indicating cracking mode transition. Further, a trend hinting towards a loading frequency dependency could be observed., Funding Agencies|Linkoping University; Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB

Cracks in single-crystal nickel-base superalloys have been observed to switch cracking mode from Mode I to crystallographic cracking. The crack propagation rate is usually higher on the crystallographic planes compared to Mode I, which is important to account for in crack growth life predictions. In this paper, a method to evaluate the crystallographic fatigue crack growth rate, based on a previously developed crystallographic crack driving force parameter, is presented. The crystallographic crack growth rate was determined by evaluating heat tints on the fracture surfaces of the test specimens from the experiments. Complicated crack geometries including multiple crystallographic crack fronts were modelled in a three dimensional finite element context, The data points of the crystallographic fatigue crack growth rate collapse on a narrow scatter band for the crystallographic cracks indicating a correlation with the previously developed crystallographic crack driving force., Funding Agencies|Linkoping University; Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB

Fatigue crack propagation tests under both isothermal and non-isothermal thermomechanical fatigue conditions have been performed on wrought Haynes 230, a ductile combustor material. A number of specimens were thermally aged by pre-straining and subsequent furnace exposure for 3000 h at 600 degrees C. The tests were performed both under load and strain control, between room temperature and 600 degrees C. The thermally aged notched specimens show a decrease in the crack initiation life, similar to results previously reported for smooth test specimens at room temperature. For the crack growth rates, the effects of thermal ageing were less pronounced than for crack initiation. Further, the tests have been simulated using the finite element method to calculate the crack driving force, where the plasticity induced crack closure is handled with a full history description. A temperature dependent linear kinematic hardening plasticity law has been adopted for describing the material behaviour between room temperature and 600 degrees C. A post-processing tool was used in which the plasticity induced crack opening level was calculated, followed by a calculation of the effective Delta J range for each crack length. The adopted procedure yields good correlation between the different tests, under both isothermal and non-isothermal conditions., Funding Agencies|Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB, Finspang, Sweden

The inherent anisotropy of single-crystal nickel-base superalloys brings many difficulties in terms of modelling, evaluation and prediction of fatigue crack growth. Two models to predict on which crystallographic plane cracking will occur is presented. The models are based on anisotropic stress intensity factors resolved on crystallographic slip planes calculated in a three-dimensional finite-element context. The developed models have been compared to experiments on two different test specimen geometries. The results show that a correct prediction of the crystallographic cracking plane can be achieved. This knowledge is of great interest for the industry and academia to better understand and predict crack growth in single-crystal materials., Funding Agencies|Swedish Energy Agency; Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB through the Research Consortium of Materials Technology for Thermal Energy Processes [KME-702]

Crack length measurements with high accuracy are often difficult to achieve during fatigue crack propagation testing under non-isothermal conditions. In this work a modified approach to the compliance method defined in e.g. ASTM E647 is described, which is better suited for high loads, varying temperatures and for taking the scatter in Youngs modulus into account. A numerical finite element study is performed for a single edge notch specimen, to investigate the influence of initiation locations on the accuracy of the method. The change in cracked area versus change in stiffness for three different cases are numerically shown to collapse to one curve, i.e. the result is not significantly affected by how the crack is initiated. The numerical study is compared to results from two experiments using different materials, with heat tinting during the tests for extracting snapshots of the crack fronts. A good agreement between the experiments and the numerical study is shown. A new compliance curve and a new geometry function for the stress intensity factor is proposed for the single edge notch specimen. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved., Funding Agencies|Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB, Finspang, Sweden

Fatigue crack propagation experiments under both force and displacement control have been performed on the wrought superalloy Haynes 230 at room temperature, using a single edge notched specimen. The force controlled tests are nominally elastic, and the displacement controlled tests have nominally large plastic hysteresis at the beginning of the tests, but saturates towards linear elastic conditions as the crack grows. As some tests are in the large scale yielding regime, a non-linear fracture mechanics approach is used to correlate crack growth rates versus the fracture parameter Delta J. It is shown that crack closure must be accounted for, to correctly model the crack growth seen in all the tests in a unified manner. For the force controlled small scale yielding tests the Newman crack closure model was used. The Newman equation is however not valid for large nominal cyclic plasticity, instead the crack closure in the displacement controlled tests is extracted from the test data. A good agreement between all tests is shown, when closure is accounted for and effective values of Delta J are used., Funding Agencies|Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB, Finspang, Sweden