Effect of Stress Ratio on the Fatigue Crack Propagation Behavior of the Nickel-based GH4169 Alloy

The fatigue crack growth behavior of the newly developed GH4169 nickel-based alloy at a maximum stress of 700 MPa and different stress ratios was investigated in the present work employing the specimens with a single micro-notch at a frequency of 129 Hz at room temperature. The results demonstrate a typical three-stage process of fatigue crack propagation processing from the microstructurally small crack (MSC) stage to the physically small crack (PSC) stage, and finally to the long crack stage. The crack growth rate in the MSC stage is relatively high, while the crack growth rate in the PSC stage is relatively low. A linear function of crack-tip reversible plastic zone size was proposed to predict the crack growth rate, indicating an adequate prediction solution.