Environment assisted crack growth in nickel-base superalloys at elevated temperature

The environmental effect on the fatigue crack growth rate of Ni-base superalloys at elevated temperature was evaluated in this study. A set of crack growth tests was performed on the turbine disk alloy ME3 at 704°C (1300°F) in vacuum and in air at 0 and 10 second hold times using two microstructures developed with two different cooling rates from the solution heat treat temperature. Fatigue crack growth tests were also conducted at 25°C (77°F) with the two microstructures. Also, a set of oxidation experiments was conducted in order to evaluate the high temperature oxidation behavior of ME3. The microstructure was analyzed and the main differences between the two cooling rates were in the amounts of minor phase particles and size of secondary gamma prime particles. The crack growth rate results suggest that there is no measurable effect of environment or microstructure at room temperature. For the tests conducted in air at elevated temperature, both hold time and microstructural effects were evident. A coupling effect was also observed between the microstructure and the environment. The samples that were slow cooled, and had larger secondary gamma prime particles, had slower crack growth rates and less intergranular fracture in air than the fast cooled samples. A possible explanation for this would be excess free chromium available along grain boundaries due to its low solubility in gamma prime, providing for greater oxidation resistance. An elevated temperature fatigue crack growth rate model for Ni-base superalloys is also proposed.