Initiation and Propagation Behaviors of Small Crack in a Polycrystalline Ni-Base Superalloy under Thermo-Mechanical Fatigue Loading

Abstract

In this work, the initiation and propagation behaviors of naturally initiated small crack in a polycrystalline Ni-base superalloy under the several kinds of thermos-mechanical fatigue (TMF) conditions. The effect of phase angle between temperature and strain cycles in TMF loading on the initiation and propagation behavior of small crack was discussed. The experimental results revealed that the initiation and propagation morphologies of fatigue small crack were affected on the phase angle; the crack initiation mode was changed from the intergranular mode to the transgranular mode with the increasing of the phase angle in this study. On the other hand, when the crack growth rates of naturally initiated small crack are correlated with fatigue J-integral range, the effect of the phase angle on the small crack growth rates became negligible even if the crack propagation mode depended on it.