Accounting for crack closure effects in out-of-phase TMF crack growth with extended hold times

The crack growth behaviour of the alloy CM 247 LC is investigated for out-of-phase TMF and isothermal tests at the same temperature as the minimum temperature in the TMF tests. The results suggest that it is possible to characterise crack growth behaviour if experimental corrections for crack closure are accounted for. The repli -cation of these experimental tests using a numerical FE-solver results in similar crack growth behaviour, sug-gesting that the main mechanism in place is plasticity-induced crack closure. A pragmatic analytical model to characterise crack closure including hold time effects is proposed. The comparison of the response from this model with the experimental and numerical results suggests that the proposed analytical model is capable to approximate crack closure effects for cases where substantial creep deformation is to be expected.
Funding Agencies|Link oping University; Siemens Energy