Effect of precipitation condition, prestrain and temperature on the fatigue behaviour of wrought nickel-based superalloys in the VHCF range

The influence of a monotonic predeformation at room temperature on the very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) behaviour was studied in polycrystalline nickel-based superalloys (Nimonic 75 and Nimonic 80A) in three characteristic precipitation conditions (precipitation-free, peak-aged and overaged) after various degrees of predeformation. Isothermal fatigue tests were executed at temperatures up to 800 °C. In the intermediate temperature range (400–600 °C) the effect of predeformation becomes weaker with increasing temperature. This can be partially explained by the beginning of recovery. However, additional effects not related to the strain-hardened microstructure play a role, such as the formation of oxide layers and the decrease in notch sensitivity. The latter effect is important because of the surface roughening resulting from prestraining. Even for the overaged condition, 4% predeformation led to a higher VHCF fatigue resistance at 600 °C, due to the relatively stable recovered dislocation arrangement. Isothermal cyclic deformation at 800 °C revealed a pronounced decrease in cyclic lifetime for all precipitation conditions with or without a mechanical prehistory. Transmission electron microscopy was carried out in order to characterize the influence of the microstructure, the resulting dislocation slip behaviour and the relevant dislocation/particle interaction mechanisms on the VHCF behaviour. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy observations revealed that all precipitation conditions show, independent of their predeformation condition, a transition from transgranular (room temperature to 600 °C) to intergranular (600–800 °C) microfatigue crack formation in the emerging oxide layers at the surface after VHCF tests.