Hold-time effect on the thermo-mechanical fatigue crack growth behaviour of Inconel 718

In-phase TMF crack growth testing with different lengths of the hold time at the maximum temperature of 550 °C has been conducted on Inconel 718 specimens. Focus has been on establishing a method for TMF crack growth testing and investigating the effect of high temperature hold times on the TMF crack growth of the material. The tests are compared to isothermal crack propagation tests and show good correlation. It is concluded that the controlling effect of the crack growth is an embrittlement of the material. This embrittlement is related to the concept of a damaged zone active in front of the crack tip. The size of this damaged zone will control the crack propagation rate and therefore it does not matter if the load is cycled under isothermal or TMF conditions.