The influence of microstructure and operating temperature on the fatigue endurance of hot forged Inconel® 718 components

The dependence of the fatigue behavior of hot-forged Inconel® 718 aircraft components on the operating temperature and the material microstructure is investigated. To this purpose, possible correlations between a variety of tested microstructural parameters and the results from low-cycle fatigue (LCF) testing are analyzed using statistical methods. To identify the prevailing damage mechanisms, failure analyses are carried out on specimens tested at different temperatures. Optical and scanning electron microscopy are used for the inspection of surface crack networks and of the final fracture surface. In addition, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses are performed at the crack initiation sites to track down possible accumulations of alloying elements. The results are critically reviewed and used to propose a temperature and microstructure dependent fatigue model for predicting LCF ε⧸N-curves.