Thermo-mechanical fatigue crack growth in a nickel-based powder metallurgy superalloy

Fatigue crack growth is studied in a nickel-based powder metallurgy (PM) superalloy (FGH4099) subjected to in-phase (IP) and out-of-phase (OP) thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF), as well as isothermal fatigue (IF) at peak temperature. The crack growth rate and path are evaluated for both coarse grain (CG) and fine grain (FG) FGH4099, especially the effects of phase angle and polycrystalline microstructure. The results show that the TMF crack propagation is mainly transgranular in OP condition; while in IP condition, fatigue crack propagates intergranularly at low ΔK and transforms to transgranular after passing the transition region. The crack propagation resistance for FG microstructure is lower than that for CG microstructure at elevated temperature, as a result of secondary cracks and grain boundary weakening effect. Crystallographic slip controls the crack propagation process, while the twin boundaries (TB) and special grain boundaries also exert a significant influence on crack deflection. The formation of secondary cracks is closely related to local misorientation and crystallographic deformation during TMF crack propagation. The crack deflection in a single grain reveals a competition mechanism between crystallographic slip and grain boundary effect, which explains the lower crack growth rate for OP when compared to IP or IF.