In warm pre-stressing (WPS), the fracture resistance of cracked steel components is raised when subjected to certain temperature-load histories. WPS’s beneficial effects enhance safety margins and potentially prolong fatigue life. However, understanding and predicting the WPS effects is crucial for employing such benefits. This study utilised pre-cracked compact tension specimens made from steam turbine steel for WPS and baseline fracture toughness testing. Two typical WPS cycles were investigated (L-C-F and L-U-C-F), and an increase in fracture resistance was observed for both cycles. The WPS tests were simulated using finite element analysis to understand its effects and predict the increase in fracture resistance. A local approach was followed based on accumulative plastic strain magnitude ahead of the crack tip. Since cleavage fracture is triggered by active plasticity, the WPS fracture is assumed when accumulated plasticity exceeds the residual plastic zone formed at the crack tip due to the initial pre-load.

Rising global energy consumption and the increase in emissions of greenhouse gases (e.g. CO2) causing global warming, make need for more sustainable power generation. This could be accomplished by increasing the efficiency of the biomass-fired power plants, which is achieved by increasing the temperature and pressure. In addition, flexible generation of power is critical if only renewable power generation is to be achieved and this will increase the number of start-and stop cycles. Cyclic condition in a long-term high temperature environment is an operation process that such materials must withstand, in order to satisfy the needs for future power generation.

Commonly austenitic stainless steel are used for critical components of power plants. Because of future change in operating conditions, further investigations are needed to verify that the demands on safety for cyclic long-term usage is fulfilled. This work includes investigation of two commercial austenitic steels: Esshete 1250 and Sanicro 25. The materials were exposed to thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) in strain control under In-Phase and Out-of-Phase conditions and main testing temperature ranges of 100-650°C and 100-800°C respectively. Some of the specimens were pre-aged to simulate prolonged service condition. Mechanical test data were obtained and analysed in order to define the TMF performance of the investigated alloys. The differences in performance were discussed in relation to mechanical and microstructural characterization.

The effect of using thin plies to increase the bearing strength of composite laminates was investigated. Five different composite laminates were manufactured using a single material system with varying proportions of thin plies (100% thick-ply, 50% thin-ply and 100% thin-ply). Bearing tests were performed and the results from the tests are investigated. The results show that performance in terms of bearing strength at onset of damage, and ultimate bearing stress increase proportionally with the increasing amount of thin plies within the stack. Microscopic examination of the failure modes for all laminates was performed at the center of the hole to determine the dominant failure mode. Transition zone was investigated where both thin and thick plies were designed so that the thin plies are used only when more strength is required. © 2022 Loukil et al.

The deformation mechanisms of a single crystal nickel-base superalloy with and without Ru-doped have been investigated under out-of-phase thermomechanical fatigue. The Ru-doped alloy exhibits a thermomechanical fatigue life more than twice as high compared to the Ru-free alloy and a difference in thermomechanical fatigue behavior is also displayed. Microstructure studies by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy revealed that the deformation mechanism of the Ru-free alloy in the initial stage is the movement of dislocations in the γ matrix. In the later stage of the thermomechanical fatigue test, large amounts of twins are formed in the material, and a large number of stacking faults and dislocations are sheared into the γ' precipitates. By comparing with the Ru-free alloy, the Ru-doped alloy has a higher matrix strength due to the solid solution strengthening effect of Ru, and is also prone to different deformation mechanisms. For example, the stacking faults are formed in the initial thermomechanical fatigue cycles and remain in the matrix throughout the entire thermomechanical fatigue process. The formation of twins, on the other hand, is suppressed by Ru addition. Such effects are believed to extend the thermomechanical fatigue life effectively.

In fatigue life prediction of single crystal gas turbine blades, the risk of rapid crystallographic crack growth along the close-packed planes poses a large uncertainty. A criterion is proposed to predict the transition from mode I to crystallographic crack growth, which is necessary for reliable prediction of the number of cycles from crack initiation to the onset of crystallographic crack growth. The proposed criterion is calibrated against tests performed under a wide range of conditions representative for a gas turbine blade, including isothermal fatigue crack growth tests and thermomechanical fatigue crack growth tests, some including hold times and pre-test aging.

In this study, the difference between in-phase (IP) and out-of-phase (OP) thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) cycling at 100–850 °C of a single-crystal superalloy is investigated both from a mechanical response and resulting microstructure perspective. Results indicate that there is no significant difference in fatigue lives between IP and OP TMF when similar strain ranges and crystal orientations are considered. The deformation mechanisms occurring during IP and OP TMF are similar where the main deformation mechanism for this alloy is localized deformation bands and crack initiation is preferred to these bands. Other TMF mechanisms, such as recrystallization and oxidation, are also discussed.

Light weight metal parts produced with additive manufacturing have gained increasing interest from the aerospace industry in recent years. However, light weight parts often require thin walls which can have different material properties compared to thick bulk material. In this work, the fatigue properties of Ti-6Al-4 V produced by electron beam powder bed fusion have been investigated for samples with three different wall thicknesses ranging from 1.3 to 2.7 mm and in three different directions; 0°, 45°, and 90° relative to the build plate. Generally, the 90° specimens show worse fatigue life compared to both 0° and 45°. It was found that the fatigue strength is lower for thin samples compared to thicker samples when the stress is calculated from nominal thickness or calliper measurements. However, since materials produced by electron beam powder bed fusion often have a rough as-built surface, the load bearing area is not easy to determine. In this paper, four different methods for determining the load bearing area are presented. It is shown that if the surface roughness is considered when calculating the stress levels, the influence from specimen thickness decreases or even disappears. 

In this study, the influuence from crystal orientation on the thermomehanical fatigue (TMF) behaviour of the recently developed single-rystal superalloy STAL-15 is considered, both from an experimental and a nite element (FE) perspective. Experimental results show that there is a strong inuence from the elastic stiffness, with respect to the loading direction, on the TMF life. However, the results also indicate that the number of active slip planes duringdeformation inuence the TMF life, where specimens with a higher number of active slip planes are favoured compared to specimens with fewer active slip planes. The higher number of active slip planes results in a more widespread deformation compared to a more conentrated deformation when only one slip plane is active. Deformation bands with smeared and elongated  γ-precipitates together with deformation twinning were found to be major deformation mechanisms, where the twins primarily were observed in specimens with several active slip planes. From an FE-perspective, therystal orientation with respect to the loading direction is quantied and adopted into a framework which makes it possible to describe the internal crystallographic arrangement and its entities in a material model. Further, a material model which incorporates the crystalorientation is able to predict the number of slip planes observed from microstructural observations, as well as the elasticstiness of the material with respect to the loading direction.