Modelling of constitutive and fatigue behaviour of a single-crystal nickel-base superalloy

Abstract: In this licentiate thesis the work done in the project KME410 will be presented. The overall objective of this project is to evaluate and develop tools for designing against fatigue in single-crystal nickel-base superalloys in gas turbines. Experiments have been done on single-crystal nickel-base superalloy specimens in order to investigate the mechanical behaviour of the material. The constitutive behaviour has been modelled and verified by simulations of the experiments. Furthermore, the  microstructural degradation during long-time ageing has been investigated with  respect to the component’s yield limit. The effect has been included in the  constitutive model by lowering the resulting yield limit. Finally, the fatigue crack  initiation of a component has been analysed and modelled by using a critical plane approach.This thesis is divided into three parts. In the first part the theoretical framework, based upon continuum mechanics, crystal plasticity and the critical plane approach, is derived. This framework is then used in the second part, which consists of three included papers. Finally, in the third part, details are presented of the used  numerical procedures.