Low-cycle fatigue and damage of an uncoated and coated single crystal nickel-base superalloy SCB

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents low-cycle fatigue (LCF) behaviour and damage mechanisms of uncoated and coated specimens of a single crystal nickel-base superalloy SCB tested at 500 °C and 900 °C. Four coatings were deposited on the base material, an overlay coating AMDRY997, a platinum-modified aluminide diffusion coating RT22 and two innovative coatings called IC1 and IC3 with a NiW diffusion barrier in the interface. AMDRY997 and RT22 were used as reference coatings. The LCF tests were performed at three strain amplitudes, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4 %, with, in laboratory air and without any dwell time. The LCF life of the specimens is determined by crack initiation and propagation. Crack data are presented for different classes of crack size in the form of crack density, that is, the number of cracks normalised to the investigated interface length. Micrographs of damage of the coatings are also shown. The effect of the coatings on the LCF life of the superalloy was dependent on the test temperature and deposited coating. At 500 °C all coatings had a detrimental effect on the LCF life of the superalloy. At 900 °C both AMDRY997 and IC1 prolonged the fatigue life of the superalloy by factors ranging between 1.5 and 4 while RT22 and IC3 shortened the life of the coating – substrate system. Specimens coated with RT22 exhibited generally more damage than other tested coatings at 900 °C. Most of the cracks observed initiated at the coating surface and a majority were arrested in the interdiffusion zone between the base material and the coating. No topologically close-packed phases were found. Delamination was only found in AMDRY997 at higher strains. Surface roughness or rumpling was found in the overlay coating AMDRY997 with some cracks initiating from the rumples. The failure morphology at 900 °C reflected the role of oxidation in the fatigue life, the crack initiation and propagation of the coated specimens. The wake of the cracks grown into the substrate was severely oxidised leading to the loss of Al and Ti to the oxide and resulting in the formation of a γ′ depleted zone. The cracks grew more or less perpendicular to the load axis in a Stage II manner.