Experimental study on creep–fatigue interaction behavior of GH4133B superalloy

The creep–fatigue tests have been conducted with nickel-based superalloy GH4133B at 600 °C in three cases of type loading to study the creep–fatigue behavior of the alloy and the loading history effect on the creep–fatigue damage. Since the conventional linear cumulative damage rule failed in evaluating the creep–fatigue life based on experimental data, a continuous non-linear model proposed by Mao et al. was employed to describe the creep–fatigue interaction. The creep–fatigue damage in the cases of continuous cyclic creep loading (CF) and prior fatigue followed by creep loading (F + C) was larger than unity and smaller than unity when the type loading was prior creep followed by fatigue loading (C + F). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses of the fracture surface showed that the cracks initiated from the specimen surface and the fracture modes in different loading history were different. The crack mode at CF loading depended on the cyclic period. In the case of F + C loading, the primary fracture mode was transgranular, and in the condition where the type of waveform was C + F, the fracture mode was of mixed transgranular and intergranular type. In addition, the origin of the history effect on creep–fatigue interaction was explained by the SEM observations.