The fatigue damage behavior of a single crystal superalloy

The uniaxial fatigue behavior of a single crystal superalloy, PWA 1480, is described. Both monotonic tensile and constant amplitude fatigue tests were conducted at room temperature, in an effort to assess the applicability of polycrystalline-based fatigue life prediction methods to a single crystal superalloy. The observed constant amplitude behavior correlated best using a stress-based life criterion. Nearly all specimens failed at surface or slightly subsurface microporosity; this is thought to be responsible for the unusually large amount of scatter in the test results. An additional term is developed in the stress-life equation for the purpose of accounting for the effect of microporosity on fatigue life. The form chosen is a function of the effective area of the failure-producing microporosity projected on a plane perpendicular to the loading axis, as well as the applied stress. This additional term correlated the data to within factors of two on life. Although speculative, extrapolation of the microporosity relation to zero micropore area indicates that approximately an order of magnitude improvement in fatigue life should result.