Role of Non-metallic Inclusions and Twins on the Variability in Fatigue Life in Alloy 718 Nickel Base Superalloy

Non-metallic inclusions (NMIs) and slip bands parallel to and slightly offset from twin boundaries are observed to be preferential sites for fatigue crack nucleation in wrought superalloys. Potential interactions between NMI cracking and slip activity within neighboring grains or at twin boundaries were investigated under monotonic tensile loading (up to 1.3% total strain) at room temperature. High resolution- and Heaviside-digital image correlation measurements were performed during interrupted tensile loading to identify strain localization, associated slip systems, and damage initiation. Different mechanisms and scenarios were identified: (1) Microplasticity generally starts at twin boundaries even at stresses as low as 70% of the macroscopic yield strength, (2) transgranular slip activity intensively develops above the macroscopic yield stress, (3) intense slip activity develops near and parallel to 21% of the twin boundaries intercepting NMIs, (4) 7% of the twin boundaries intercepting NMIs lead to slip-assisted NMI cracking, (5) no transgranular slip activity participates in NMI cracking, (6) the fraction of cracked NMIs progressively increases with the load, and (7) within the NMIs that initiated cracks, 67% cracked below 90% of the macroscopic yield strength without the presence of slip activity in the neighboring grains. While slip-assisted NMI cracking was evidenced in the present study, most NMI cracking is due to strain incompatibility between NMIs and neighboring grains at the high end of the elastic regime without slip interaction.