CRACK INITIATION AND PROPAGATION OF HIGH Nb-CONTAINING TiAl ALLOY IN FATIGUE-CREEP INTERACTION
YU Long1, SONG Xiping1(), ZHANG Min1, LI Hongliang1, JIAO Zehui2, YU Huichen2
1 State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083 2 Science and Technology on Advanced High Temperature Structural Materials Laboratory, AVIC Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials, Beijing 100095
Cite this article:
YU Long, SONG Xiping, ZHANG Min, LI Hongliang, JIAO Zehui, YU Huichen. CRACK INITIATION AND PROPAGATION OF HIGH Nb-CONTAINING TiAl ALLOY IN FATIGUE-CREEP INTERACTION. Acta Metall Sin, 2014, 50(10): 1253-1259.
TiAl-based alloys appear as potential competitors to steels and superalloys applied in aerospace and automotive industries due to their low density, high specific strength and stiffness and good oxidation resistance at elevated temperatures. As a new generation of TiAl-based alloys, high Nb-containing TiAl alloys have become a promising high temperature structural material due to their better high temperature strength and oxidation resistance than ordinary TiAl alloys. TiAl-based alloy components such as low pressure turbine blade and compressor impeller often serve in near steady conditions for a duration of time once peak operating conditions are achieved at high temperature. The components suffer not only from rapidly induced damage from start-up and shutdown cycles, but also from creep damage under sustained loading periods. Moreover, the possible interaction damage between fatigue and creep must be considered. Thus, the study of fatigue-creep interaction for TiAl-based alloys is of great practical importance. Large numbers of researches were focused on the fatigue or creep properties of TiAl-based alloys, however, the fatigue-creep interaction behavior was rarely reported. Therefore, the crack initiation and propagation behavior of a nearly lamellar Ti-45Al-8Nb-0.2W-0.2B-0.1Y alloy in fatigue-creep interaction was observed at 750 ℃. The cyclic loading tests were carried out using a mini servo-hydraulic fatigue machine in a SEM chamber. The entire process of crack initiation and propagation was observed. The load cycling was trapezoidal by applying a dwell time at the maximum tension stress. The results indicated that micro-cracks mainly occurred at internal grain boundaries in the form of creep void or fatigue micro-crack. The micro-cracks firstly extended along the grain boundary by absorbing the creep voids or the stress concentration around crack tips, then connected with each other forming a longer crack. As the crack was frustrated by grain boundaries of other orientations, the crack began to grow in the thickness direction. Meanwhile, the micro-cracks perpendicular to loading direction emerged. Eventually, the frustrated cracks interconnected resulting in fracture. Compared to the in situ SEM observations in fatigue deformation, the dwell time resulted in the increase of probability of grain boundary crack initiation and the changes of crack propagation path. Thus, the fracture mode transform from transcrystalline to intercrystalline and the fatigue lifetime significantly decreased. The model of the crack initiation and propagation behaviors of high Nb-containing TiAl alloys in fatigue-creep interaction was presented in this work.
Fig.1 Dimension of specimen (unit: mm, and the thickness of specimens is approximately 1.0 mm)
Fig.2 Waveform of fatigue-creep interaction tests (Δt—dwell time at the maximum tension stress, smax—maximum tension stress, smin—minimum tension stress)
Fig.3 SEM image of Ti-45Al-8Nb-0.2W-0.2B-0.1Y cast alloy
Fig.4 Mean strain curve of Ti-45Al-8Nb-0.2W-0.2B-0.1Y cast alloy in cycling with smax=468.8 MPa, stress ratio R=0.1 and Δt=10 s at 750 ℃ (stage I—primary decelerated stage, stage II—steady-state stage, stage III—tertiary accelerated stage)
Fig.5 Mean strain rate curve of Ti-45Al-8Nb-0.2W-0.2B-0.1Y cast alloy in cycling with smax=468.8 MPa, R=0.1 and Δt=10 s at 750 ℃
Fig.6 In situ SEM images of Ti-45Al-8Nb-0.2W-0.2B-0.1Y cast alloy in cycling with smax=468.8 MPa, R=0.1 and Δt=10 s at 750 ℃ (C1~C6 show different cracks, Δw—decrease of specimen width, N—number of cycle, Nf—number of cycle to failure)
Fig.7 In situ SEM image of Ti-45Al-8Nb-0.2W-0.2B-0.1Y cast alloy before fracture in cycling with smax=468.8 MPa, R=0.1 and Δt=60 s at 750 ℃
Fig.8 Specimen surface morphologies of Ti-45Al-8Nb-0.2W-0.2B-0.1Y cast alloy in cycling with σmax=468.8 MPa and Δt=0 s at 750 ℃ before fracture, N/Nf=99.78 % (a), detail of region A in Fig.8a (b) and after fracture (c)
Fig.9 Model of crack initiation and propagation behavior of high Nb-containing TiAl alloys in fatigue-creep interaction at 750 ℃ (a) micro-cracks and creep voids initiate at the internal grain boundary (b) micro-cracks and creep voids growing (c~e) crack propagation behavior
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