High-cycle fatigue of nickel-base superalloy René 104 (ME3): Interaction of microstructurally small cracks with grain boundaries of known character

High-cycle fatigue (HCF), involving the premature initiation and/or rapid propagation of small cracks to failure due to high-frequency cyclic loading, has been identified as one of the leading causes of turbine engine failures in aircraft. In this work, we consider the feasibility of using grain-boundary engineering to improve the HCF properties of a polycrystalline nickel-base superalloy, René 104 (also known as ME3), through systematic modification of the grain-boundary distribution. In particular, we investigate the growth of microstructurally small fatigue cracks at ambient temperature in microstructures with varying proportions of “special” vs. “random” boundaries, as defined by coincident-site lattice theory. Specifically, we examine the interaction of propagating small (∼10–900 μm) surface cracks with grain boundaries of known character, with respect both to any deflection in crack trajectory that occurs at or near the boundary, and more importantly to any local changes in crack-growth rates. In addition, finite-element calculations are performed to evaluate the effective driving force and plastic-zone profile for such small-crack propagation, incorporating information from both the local microstructure (from electron backscattering diffraction scans) and the surface crack-path profile.