Cyclic creep and anelastic relaxation analysis of an ODS superalloy

Abstract

This paper documents the effect of stress and temperature on the cyclic minimum strain rate at two different loading frequencies for the oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) superalloy, INCONEL* MA 6000. The apparent stress exponent and activation energy for cyclic creep at both frequencies studied are shown to be greater than values observed for static creep. The large values of the stress exponent and activation energy for cyclic creep are proposed to result from anelastic strain storage delaying nonrecoverable creep during the on-load portion of the cyclic creep loading, such that the “effective stress” driving nonrecoverable creep is only a small fraction of the applied stress. In addition, the temperature dependence of the anelastic relaxation that occurs during the off-load portion of the cyclic creep loading is determined. The activation energy found for the relaxation process is equal to about one-half that for self-diffusion in nickel. A mechanism of localized climb of dislocations over the oxide dispersoids present in INCONEL MA 6000 is postulated to account for the observed activation energy of the relaxation process.