3D Investigation of Cracking Behavior in a Ni Superalloy

摘要

The high temperature fatigue performance of Ni-base superalloys is critical to gas turbine applications and as such, requires a more fundamental understanding when designing and producing turbine components. To investigate the relationship to local microstructure, a fatigue specimen was cycled under conditions designed specifically to result in intergranular propagation. Prior to failure, the test was interrupted and a 3D data set was reconstructed destructively from optical and EBSD slices taken from around the tip of the growing crack. The data set was investigated to understand the character of grain boundary planes along the crack front with respect those of the bulk material.