High/very-high fatigue properties and microstructure evolutions of 9Cr3W3Co turbine rotor steel at room temperature and 650 °C

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the high and very-high fatigue properties of 9Cr3W3Co turbine rotor steel at room temperature (RT) and 650 °C. The resulting S–N curves demonstrated a continuous downward trend, without exhibiting a conventional fatigue limit. The fatigue strength corresponding to 5 × 107 cycles is approximately 53.9% of yield strength at RT, increasing to around 55.4% at 650 °C. Meanwhile, compared to the fatigue strength at 5 × 107 cycles at RT, it at 650 °C decreased by 53.3%. Surface crack initiation was found to be the main fatigue fracture failure model, observed at both RT and 650 °C. Microscopic analysis revealed that severe dislocation motion and grain deformation occurred within the material matrix during the cyclic loading process at both RT and 650 °C, resulting in the formation of abundant low-angle grain boundaries, dislocation lines and sub-grains. At RT, the presence of the M23C6 precipitated phase imposed a strong pinning effect, while the MX phase within the martensite laths effectively impeded the movement of dislocation lines, thereby enhancing fatigue properties. However, at 650 °C, the emergence of newly precipitated Cu-rich phases was observed, which can reduce the free path of dislocations, hinder slip motion of dislocations, and thus compensate for the negative effect caused by high-temperature microstructural degeneration.