<i>In Situ</i> Study of the Mechanisms of High Temperature Damage in Elastic-Plastic Cyclic Loading of Nickel Superalloy

Abstract

In-situ Low Cycle Fatigue test (LCF) at temperature 635 °C have been performed in SEM on flat specimen ofcast Inconel 713LC superalloy. The aim of the investigation was to studymechanisms of the fatigue damage during elastic-plastic cycling by theobservations of the characteristic surface relief evolution and theaccompanying internal dislocation structures. The selected locations on thesurface were systematically studied in-situ and documented by SEM and usingAFM. The surface relief in the first tensile half-cycle was formed by numerousslip steps on the primary slip planes (111). In the following compressionhalf-cycle additional opposite slip were formed. The relief was modified in thenext cycles but without forming additionally new slip traces in the primarysystem. The reorientation of two grains in the gauge area was measured usingEBSD. At the end of cyclic loading the relation between surface persistent slipmarkings and persistent slip bands in the interior of the material wasdocumented by TEM on lamella prepared by FIB. The early stages of extrusion andintrusion formation were documented. The damage mechanism evolution is closelyconnected with the cyclic strain localization to the persistent slip bands thatare also places of fatigue crack initiation.