Damage and Fracture Mechanism of a Nickel-Based Single Crystal Superalloy during Creep at Moderate Temperature

By means of creep properties measurement and microstructure observation, an investigation has been made into the damage and fracture mechanism of a nickel-based single crystal superalloy during creep at moderate temperature. Results show that the deformation mechanism of the alloy in the latter stage of creep is that the primary-secondary slipping systems are alternately activated, and the micro-crack is firstly initiated on the γ′/γ phases interface in the intersection regions of two slip systems. As creep goes on, the micro-crack is propagated along the γ′/γ interface, which is perpendicular to stress axis, to form the square-like cleavage plane on the (001) plane. Thereinto, the propagation of the cracks on (001) plane is intersected with {111} cleavage plane which is secondly activated, which may terminate the propagation of the crack to form the cleavage plane with square-like feature on (001) plane along the directions. Due to the multi-cracks may be propagated on different cross-section of the alloy during creep, and the tearing edge or secondary cleavage plane are formed along the direction with bigger shearing stress at the crack tip, which makes the multi-cracks connected each other until the occurrence of creep fracture, this is thought to be the main reason of the creep fracture having the uneven and multi-level cleavage characteristics.