Microstructure-Sensitive Crystal Plasticity Modeling for Austenitic Steel and Nickel-Based Superalloy Under Isothermal Fatigue Loading

Abstract

Abstract Intermittent mechanical loads combined with high temperatures appear during the operation of turbines in jet engines or in power plants, which can lead to high-temperature fatigue or to thermomechanical fatigue. Since the assessment of fatigue properties is a complex and time-consuming process, it is essential to develop validated material models that are capable of predicting fatigue behavior, thus allowing the extrapolation of experimental results into a broader range of thermomechanical conditions. To accomplish this, two representative volume elements (RVEs), mimicking the typical microstructure of single crystal Ni-based superalloys and polycrystalline austenitic steels, respectively, are introduced. With the help of these RVEs, the temperature and deformation-dependent internal stresses in the microstructure can be taken into account. In the next step, phenomenological crystal plasticity models are implemented and parameterized for cyclic deformation of these two materials. The RVE, constitutive model, and the material parameters for the Ni-based superalloy are taken from a former study. For the austenitic steel, however, an inverse procedure has been used to identify its material parameters based on several isothermal fatigue tests in a wide temperature range. With the identified material parameters, a valid description of the isothermal fatigue behavior at different temperatures is possible. The most important conclusion from the comparison of the isothermal fatigue behavior of the two different materials is that the kinematic hardening, which is responsible for the shape of the hysteresis loops, is entirely described by the internal stresses within the typical microstructure of the Ni-based superalloy, which is modeled in a scale-bridging approach. Hence, no additional terms for kinematic hardening need to be introduced to describe the cyclic plasticity in the superalloy. For the austenitic steel, in contrast, the Ohno–Wang model for kinematic hardening needs to be considered additionally to the internal stresses in the polycrystalline microstructure to obtain a correct description of its cyclic plasticity.