Mechanisms of short-fatigue-crack initiation and propagation in a β-Ti alloy

The microstructurally short-crack initiation and early propagation were studied on the metastable beta-Ti alloy Timetal(R) LCB in the solution heat-treated bcc beta microstructure under symmetrical pull-push fatigue testing. By means of a finite-element treatment in combination with local displacement measurements applying a laser interferometric strain-displacement gauge (ISDG), it was shown that elastic anisotropy gives rise to high mechanical stresses at certain grain boundaries (GBs). Large-angle GBs were observed to be preferred sites for short-crack initiation. Two modes of fatigue crack initiation were found: one is crack formation along slip bands, often resulting in transgranular crack propagation; the second is intergranular cracking of GBs. Using electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD), local crystallographic orientations were determined and hence the role of GB types in the process of short crack initiation and growth could be taken into account. On the basis of the experimental observations and measurements, the preferred crystallographic conditions for short crack initiation and growth were revealed. The ISDG system was applied to measure the local crack opening displacements of short cracks in order to characterize the dependence of the short-crack closure phenomena on the applied load.