Effect of boron and carbon on thermomechanical fatigue of IN 718 superalloy: Part I. Deformation behavior

Stress-controlled thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) behavior of IN 718 superalloy with different concentrations of boron (B) and carbon (C) was studied with temperature varying between 350 and 650 °C at different cyclic stress ranges and at a stress ratio of R = 0.1. Initial cyclic softening followed by a significant cyclic hardening was observed in the in-phase (IP) TMF, while continuous cyclic hardening occurred during out-of-phase (OP) TMF. Tensile cyclic creep was observed in all the TMF deformation regimes, and the creep strain increased with increasing number of cycles and stress range. B and C additions were found to retard the cyclic creep, leading to an effective improvement in the fatigue life of IP-TMF. Among the four alloys tested, the alloy with 29 ppm B and 225 ppm C exhibited the lowest creep strain and the highest IP-TMF life at the lower stress range. In the OP-TMF, the fatigue life increased with increasing B concentration at the higher stress range, and with C concentration at the lower stress range. The IP-TMF life was observed to be much shorter than that of the OP-TMF, with a crossover occurring at the higher stress range. Fractographic examinations showed that the fracture was predominantly intergranular in the IP-TMF mode, and transgranular, as characterized by typical fatigue striations, in the OP-TMF mode of deformation. The difference in the fracture mechanisms between the IP and OP-TMF mode of deformation was the primary reason for a significant influence of the loading mode on the TMF lifetime.