Effect of Dwell-times on Crack Propagation in Superalloys

Abstract: Gas turbines are widely used in industry for power generation and as a power source at "hard to reach" locations where other possibilities for electrical supply are insufficient. There is a strong need for greener energy, considering the effect that pollution has had on global warming, and we need to come up with ways of producing cleaner electricity. A way to achieve this is by increasing the combustion temperature in gas turbines. This increases the demand on the high temperature performance of the materials used e.g. superalloys in the turbine. These high combustion temperatures can lead to detrimental degradation of critical components. These components are commonly subjected to cyclic loading of different types e.g. combined with dwell-times and overloads at elevated temperatures, which influence the crack growth. Dwell-times have shown to accelerate crack growth and change the cracking behaviour in both Inconel 718 and Haynes 282. Overloads at the beginning of the dwell-time cycle have shown to retard the dwell time effect on crack growth in Inconel 718. To understand these effects more microstructural investigations are needed.The work presented in this licentiate thesis was conducted under the umbrella of the research program Turbo Power; "High temperature fatigue crack propagation in nickel-based superalloys", concentrating on fatigue crack growth mechanisms in superalloys during dwell-times, which have shown to have a devastating effect on the crack propagation behaviour. Mechanical testing was performed under operation-like conditions in order to achieve representative microstructures and material data for the subsequent microstructural work. The microstructures were microscopically investigated in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) using electron channeling contrast imaging (ECCI) as well as using light optical microscopy.The outcome of this work has shown that there is a significant increase in crack growth rate when dwell-times are introduced at the maximum load (0% overload) in the fatigue cycle. With the introduction of a dwell-time there is also a shift from transgranular to intergranular crack growth for both Inconel 718 and Haynes 282. When an overload is applied prior to the dwell-time, the crack growth rate decreases with increasing overload levels in Inconel 718. At high temperature crack growth in Inconel 718 took place as intergranular crack growth along grain boundaries due to oxidation and the creation of nanometric voids. Another observed growth mechanism was crack advance along phase boundaries with subsequent severe oxidation of the phase.This thesis comprises two parts. The first giving an introduction to the field of superalloys and the acting microstructural mechanisms that influence fatigue during dwell times. The second part consists of two appended papers, which report the work completed so far in the project.