The Effect of Multiaxial Stress State on Formation of Rafts in CMSX-4 Superalloy during Creep

Abstract

The effect of multiaxial stress state caused by a notch effect on microstructure degradation of single crystal nickel based superalloy CMSX-4 was studied during creep at a temperature of 950 °C, under constant nominal stress of 120 MPa for 500 and 1000 h. In order to minimize surface oxidation effects on microstructure degradation and notched geometry of specimens, all experiments were performed under protective atmosphere. The geometry of creep specimens was designed with the aim to obtain defined interval of principal stresses, which is sufficiently large to get reliable microstructure response during tensile creep experiments. Flat specimens with “U-type” notch were designed using elastic finite element method (FEM) calculations. Microstructure analysis of the crept specimens showed that notches affect degradation processes of the studied superalloy significantly. FEM elastic-plastic analysis was performed to simulate creep of the notched specimens. Material creep behaviour was integrated into calculations by a subroutine using equations derived from experimentally measured data for cylindrical creep specimens tested at various constant nominal stresses. Magnitude, distribution and orientation of principal stresses resulting from the specimen loading were calculated and their effect on formation of rafts was described.