Additive manufacturing is an innovative production approach aimed at creating products that traditionaltechniques cannot produce with the desired quality and requirements. Throughout the additive manufacturing process, data is either used (such as materials properties, printer characteristics and settings)or generated (such as monitoring data during printing, slicing strategies setting parameters). However, managing such data with complex relationships remains a significant challenge in both research andindustry in the additive manufacturing field. To address this issue, we developed a modular ontology that can be used as the basis for a framework that supports decision-making systems, facilitate semantics-aware data management, and enhance the understanding and optimization of additive manufacturingprocesses. In this paper we focus on one of the state-of-the-art additive manufacturing approaches, i.e., powder bed fusion. To show the use and the feasibility of our approach, we created a knowledge graph for an actual additive manufacturing experiment based on our ontology, and show how queries relevant to domain experts can be answered using this knowledge graph.

Exploring crack growth behaviour is needed to establish accurate fatigue life predictions. Cracked specimens were tested under strain-controlled out-of-phase thermomechanical fatigue conditions. The tests included dwell times and three different minimum temperatures. Higher minimum temperature gave faster crack growth rates while the additions of dwell times showed no effects. Crack closure was observed in all the tests where the addition of dwell times and change in minimum temperature displayed little to no effect on crack closure stresses. Finite element models with a sharp stationary crack and material parameters switching provided acceptable predictions for the maximum, minimum, and crack closure stresses.

Understanding of crack growth behaviour is necessary to predict accurate fatigue lives. Out-of-phase thermomechanical fatigue crack propagation tests were performed on FB2 steel used in high-temperature steam turbine sections. Testing results showed crack closure where the compressive part of the fatigue cycle affected crack growth rate. Crack closing stress was observed to be different, and had more influence on the growth rate, than crack opening stress. Crack growth rate was largely controlled by the minimum temperature of the cycle, which agreed with an isothermal crack propagation test. Finite element models with stationary sharp cracks captured the crack closure behaviour.

Additive manufacturing of Alloy 718 has become a popular subject of research in recent years. Understanding the process-microstructure-property relationship of additively manufactured Alloy 718 is crucial for maturing the technology to manufacture critical components. Fatigue behaviour is a key mechanical property that is required in applications such as gas turbines. Therefore, in the present work, low cycle fatigue behaviour of Alloy 718 manufactured by laser beam powder bed fusion process has been investigated. The material was tested in as-built condition as well as after two different thermal post-treatments. Three orientations with respect to the building direction were tested to evaluate the anisotropy. Testing was performed at room temperature under controlled amplitudes of strain. It was found that defects, inclusions, strengthening precipitates, and Youngs modulus influence the fatigue behaviour under strain-controlled conditions. The strengthening precipitates affected the deformation mechanism as well as the cycle-dependent hardening/softening behaviour. The defects and the inclusions had a detrimental effect on fatigue life. The presence of Laves phase in LB-PBF Alloy 718 did not have a detrimental effect on fatigue life. Youngs modulus was anisotropic and it contributed to the anisotropy in strain-life relationship. Pseudo-elastic stress vs. fatigue life approach could be used to handle the modulus-induced anisotropy in the strain-life relationship.

A study of the microstructure of additively manufactured Alloy 718 was performed in order to better understand the parameters that have an influence on the fatigue properties of the material. The specimens were manufactured using two powder bed fusion techniques - Electron Beam Melting (EBM) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM). Four point bending fatigue tests were performed at room temperature with a stress ratio of R = 0.1 and 20 Hz frequency, on material that was either in hot isostatically pressed (HIP) and solution treated and aged (STA) condition or in STA condition without a prior HIP treatment. The grains in the SLM material in the HIP + STA condition have grown considerably both in the hatch and the contour regions; EBM material, in contrast, shows grain growth only in the contour region. Fractographic analysis of the specimens in HIP + STA condition showed a faceted appearance while the specimens in STA condition showed a more planar crack appearance. The crack propagation occurred in a transgranular mode and it was found that precipitates such as NbC, TiN or 8-phase, when present, did not affect the crack path. The areas with larger grains corresponded to the faceted appearance of the fracture surface. This could be attributed to the plastic zone ahead of the crack tip being confined within one grain, in case of the larger grains, which promotes single shear crack growth mode.

Electron beam melting (EBM) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM) are powder bed based additive manufacturing (AM) processes. These, relatively new, processes offer advantages such as near net shaping, manufacturing complex geometries with a design space that was previously not accessible with conventional manufacturing processes, part consolidation to reduce number of assemblies, shorter time to market etc. The aerospace and gas turbine industries have shown interest in the EBM and the SLM processes to enable topology-optimized designs, parts with lattice structures and part consolidation. However, to realize such advantages, factors affecting the mechanical properties must be well understood - especially the fatigue properties. In the context of fatigue performance, apart from the effect of different phases in the material, the effect of defects in terms of both the amount and distribution and the effect of "rough" as-built surface must be studied in detail. Fatigue properties of Alloy 718, a Ni-Fe based superalloy widely used in the aerospace engines is investigated in this study. Four point bending fatigue tests have been performed at 20 Hz in room temperature at different stress ranges to compare the performance of the EBM and the SLM material to the wrought material. The experiment aims to assess the differences in fatigue properties between the two powder bed AM processes as well as assess the effect of two post-treatment methods namely - machining and hot isostatic pressing (HIP). Fractography and metallography have been performed to explain the observed properties. Both HIPing and machining improve the fatigue performance; however, a large scatter is observed for machined specimens. Fatigue properties of SLM material approach that of wrought material while in EBM material defects severely affect the fatigue life.

In this study, Alloy 718 specimens manufactured by Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion process are subjected to two different post-treatments to have different microstructural features. Low cycle fatigue testing has been performed both parallel and transverse to the build direction. EB-PBF Alloy 718 exhibits anisotropic fatigue behaviour; the fatigue life is better along the parallel direction compared to the transverse direction. The anisotropy in fatigue life is related to the anisotropy in the Youngs modulus. The pseudo-elastic stress vs. fatigue life approach is presented as a potential solution to handle anisotropy in fatigue life assessment of additively manufactured engineering components.

Alloy 718 finds application in gas turbine engine components, such as turbine disks, compressor blades and so forth, due to its excellent mechanical and corrosion properties at elevated temperatures. Electron beam melting (EBM) is a recent addition to the list of additive manufacturing processes and has shown the capability to produce components with unique microstructural features. In this work, Alloy 718 specimens were manufactured using the EBM process with a single batch of virgin plasma atomized powder. One set of as-built specimens was subjected to solution treatment and ageing (STA); another set of as-built specimens was subjected to hot isostatic pressing (HIP), followed by STA (and referred to as HIP+STA). Microstructural analysis of as-built specimens, STA specimens and HIP+STA specimens was carried out using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Typical columnar microstructure, which is a characteristic of the EBM manufactured alloy, was observed. Hardness evaluation of the as-built, STA and HIP+STA specimens showed that the post-treatments led to an increase in hardness in the range of similar to 50 HV1. Tensile properties of the three material conditions (as-built, STA and HIP+STA) were evaluated. Post-treatments lead to an increase in the yield strength (YS) and the ultimate tensile strength (UTS). HIP+STA led to improved elongation compared to STA due to the closure of defects but YS and UTS were comparable for the two post-treatment conditions. Fractographic analysis of the tensile tested specimens showed that the closure of shrinkage porosity and the partial healing of lack of fusion (LoF) defects were responsible for improved properties. Fatigue properties were evaluated in both STA and HIP+STA conditions. In addition, three surface conditions were also investigated, namely the raw as-built surface, the machined surface with the contour region and the machined surface without the contour region. Machining off the contour region completely together with HIP+STA led to significant improvement in fatigue performance.

An elasto-viscoplastic thermodynamically consistent constitutive model for diffusion-assisted phase transformations is presented here. The model accounts for the different deformation mechanisms, their time dependence, the crystal rotations produced by microtwin propagation and the chemistry-plasticity coupling occurring at high temperature. It is applied to the study of the chemically assisted microtwinning observed in Ni-based superalloys in the temperature range of 600-800 degrees C. The model parameters are calibrated against multi-directional mechanical data from tensile creep tests of single crystal superalloy MD2. The constitutive model is then implemented into a crystal plasticity finite element code to study the activation of the different deformation mechanisms within single crystal and polycrystalline aggregates. Doing so, a relation between the rotations of the crystal and the creep life of the different crystal orientations is established. The results eventually reveal the critical role of the strong anisotropy of microtwin formation on the asymmetric behavior of the alloy and its relevant role on the mechanical performance.

A start-up of a gas turbine means that stress and forces are put on the machine. A start-up in cold climate conditions means that the forces are more critical since the material in the machine becomes more brittle. At a certain temperature the material is utilized to its limits (with appropriate margins applied) and for the SGT-600 ambient temperatures below -30°C (-22°F) become critical. In earlier installations in an arctic climate, an electric pre- heater has been utilized to prevent the critical components from becoming too brittle. This additional hardware costs money, is consuming auxiliary power and may contribute to unavailability. Another way to solve this issue may be to install material that is less brittle, but this will also increase the cost of the installation. Siemens is now applying an improved control logic during start-up, solving this issue in the software, without any additional hardware and avoiding unnecessary material changes. This new innovative start-up procedure is performing an automatic check of the stress levels before loading the machine, resulting in a safe and reliable start at temperatures below -30°C (-22°F). 

Single-crystal nickel-base superalloys frequently experience two distinct fatigue crack growth modes. It has been observed that, under certain conditions, cracks transition from a path perpendicular to the loading direction to a crystallographic slip plane. As crystallographic cracking is associated with an increased fatigue crack growth rate, it is important to be able to predict when this transition occurs. In this work three different criteria for crystallographic cracking based on resolved anisotropic stress intensity factors are evaluated in a three-dimensional finite element context. The criteria were calibrated and evaluated using isothermal fatigue experiments on two different specimen geometries. It is suggested by the results, that a threshold value of a resolved shear stress intensity factor can act as a conservative criterion indicating cracking mode transition. Further, a trend hinting towards a loading frequency dependency could be observed.

In this paper, the possibility to use linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM), with and without a superimposed residual stress field, to predict fatigue crack propagation in the gas turbine disk material Inconel 718 has been studied. A temperature of 400 degrees C and applied strain ranges corresponding to component near conditions have been considered. A three-dimensional crack propagation software was used for determining the stress intensity factors (SIFs) along the crack path. In the first approach, a linear elastic material behavior was used when analyzing the material response. The second approach extracts the residual stresses from an uncracked model with perfectly plastic material behavior after one loading cycle. As a benchmark, the investigated methods are compared to experimental tests, where the cyclic lifetimes were calculated by an integration of Paris law. When comparing the results, it can be concluded that the investigated approaches give good results, at least for longer cracks, even though plastic flow was taking place in the specimen. The pure linear elastic simulation overestimates the crack growth for all crack lengths and gives conservative results over all considered crack lengths. Noteworthy with this work is that the 3D-crack propagation could be predicted with the two considered methods in an LEFM context, although plastic flow was present in the specimens during the experiments.

The elastic and plastic anisotropy of the single-crystal materials bring many difficulties in terms of modeling, evaluation and prediction of fatigue crack growth. In this paper a single-crystal material model has been adopted to a finite element-environment, which is paired with a crack growth tool. All simulations are performed in a three-dimensional context. This methodology makes it possible to analyze complex finite element-models, which are more application-near than traditional two-dimensional models. The influence of the crystal orientation, as well as the influence of misalignments of the crystal orientation due to the casting process are investigated. It is shown that both the crystal orientation and the misalignment from the ideal crystal orientation are important for the crack driving force. The realistic maximum limit of 10 degrees misalignment is considered. It can be seen that crack growth behavior is highly influenced by the misalignment. This knowledge is of great interest for the industry in order to evaluate the crack growth in single-crystal components more accurately.

Highly alloyed austenitic stainless steels are promising candidates to replace more expansive nickel-based alloys within the energy-producing industry. The present study investigates the deformation mechanisms by microstructural characterisation, mechanical properties and stress-strain response of three commercial austenitic stainless steels and two commercial nickel-based alloys using uniaxial tensile tests at elevated temperatures from 400 C up to 700 C. The materials showed different influence of temperature on ductility, where the ductility at elevated temperatures increased with increasing nickel and solid solution hardening element content. The investigated materials showed planar dislocation driven deformation at elevated temperature. Scanning electron microscopy showed that deformation twins were an active deformation mechanism in austenitic stainless steels during tensile deformation at elevated temperatures up to 700 C.

Sanicro 25 is a newly developed advanced high strength heat resistant austenitic stainless steel. The material shows good resistance to steam oxidation and flue gas corrosion, and has higher creep rupture strength than other austenitic stainless steels available today. It is thus an excellent candidate for superheaters and reheaters for advanced ultra-super critical power plants with efficiency higher than 50 %. This paper provides a study on the creep–fatigue interaction behavior of Sanicro 25 at 700 °C. Two strain ranges, 1 and 2 %, and two dwell times, 10 and 30 min, were used. The influences of dwell time on the cyclic deformation behavior and life has been evaluated. Due to stress relaxation the dwell time causes a larger plastic strain range compared to the tests without dwell time. The results also show that the dwell time leads to a shorter fatigue life for the lower strain range, but has no or small effect on the life for the higher strain range. Fracture investigations show that dwell times result in more intergranular cracking. With the use of the electron channeling contrast imaging technique, the influences of dwell time on the cyclic plastic deformation, precipitation behavior, recovery phenomena and local plasticity exhaustion have also been studied.

As a renewable energy resource, biomass or biomass co-firing in coal-fired power plants with high efficiency are desired which corresponding to elevated temperature and high pressure. An upgrade of the material performance to austenitic stainless steels is therefore required in order to meet the increased demands due to the higher temperature and the more corrosive environment. These materials suffer from creep and fatigue damage during the service. In this study, these behaviours are evaluated using slow strain rate testing (SSRT) with strain rate down to 1*10-6/s at temperature up to 700°C. The influence of temperature and strain rate on strength and ductility in one austenitic stainless steel and one nickel base alloys are investigated. The damage and fracture due to the interaction between moving dislocations and precipitates are studied using electron channelling contrast imaging (ECCI) and electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD). The deformation and damage mechanisms active during SSRT are essentially the same as under creep. The influence of dynamic strain ageing (DSA) phenomena that appears in the tested temperature and strain rate regime is also discussed, DSA is intensified by increased temperature and decreased strain rate.

Biomass power plants with high efficiency are desired as a renewable energy resource. High efficiency can be obtained by increasing temperature and pressure. An upgrade of the material performance to high temperature material is therefore required in order to meet the increased demands due to the higher temperature and the more corrosive environment. In this study, the material’s high-temperature behaviours of AISI 304 and Alloy617 under slow deformation rate are evaluated using high-temperature long-term aged specimens subjected to slow strain rate tensile testing (SSRT) with strain rates down to 10^-6/s at 700°C. Both materials show decreasing stress levels and elongation to fracture when tensile deformed using low strain rate and elevated temperature. At high-temperature and low strain rates cracking in grain boundaries due to larger precipitates formed during deformation is the most common fracture mechanism.

Deformation and damage behaviours influenced by dynamic strain ageing (DSA) in three austenitic stainless steels and two nickel-base alloys have been investigated using tensile tests at elevated temperatures. The deformation and damage behaviours have been analysed using electron channeling contrast imaging and electron backscatter diffraction. The results from this study show that DSA not always reduce ductility, in fact for some materials the ductility can increase in the DSA regime. This is attributed to the formation of nano twins by DSA stimulated twinning induced plasticity. Damage mechanisms due to DSA were also investigated and discussed.

In this study, slow strain rate tensile testing at elevated temperature is used to evaluate the influence of temperature and strain rate on deformation behaviour in two different austenitic alloys. One austenitic stainless steel (AISI 316L) and one nickel-base alloy (Alloy 617) have been investigated. Scanning electron microscopy related techniques as electron channelling contrast imaging and electron backscattering diffraction have been used to study the damage and fracture micromechanisms. For both alloys the dominante damage micromechanisms are slip bands and planar slip interacting with grain bounderies or precipitates causing strain concentrations. The dominante fracture micromechanism when using a slow strain rate at elevated temperature, is microcracks at grain bounderies due to grain boundery embrittlement caused by precipitates. The decrease in strain rate seems to have a small influence on dynamic strain ageing at 650°C.

Austenitic stainless steels are often used for components in demanding environment. These materials can withstand elevated temperatures and corrosive atmosphere like in energy producing power plants. They can be plastically deformed at slow strain rates and high alternating or constant tensile loads such as fatigue and creep at elevated temperatures. This study investigates how deformation rates influence mechanical properties of an austenitic stainless steel. The investigation includes tensile testing using strain rates of 2*10^-3/ and 10^-6/s at elevated temperatures up to 700°C. The material used in this study is AISI 316L. When the temperature is increasing the strength decreases. At a slow strain rate and elevated temperature the stress level decreases gradually with increasing plastic deformation probably due to dynamic recovery and dynamic recrystallization. However, with increasing strain rate elongation to failure is decreasing. AISI 316L show larger elongation to failure when using a strain rate of 10^-6/s compared with 2*10^-3/s at each temperature. Electron channelling contrast imaging is used to characterize the microstructure and discuss features in the microstructure related to changes in mechanical properties. Dynamic recrystallization has been observed and is related to damage and cavity initiation and propagation.

Advanced biomass, biomass co-firing in coal-fired and future advanced USC coal-fired power plants with high efficiency require the materials to be used at even higher temperature under higher pressure. The reliability and integrity of the material used are therefore of concern. In this study, the influence of ageing at temperatures up to 700°C for up to 3 000 hours on the toughness of two advanced heat resistant austenitic steels and one nickel alloy are investigated. The influence on toughness due to differences in the chemical composition as well as the combined effect of precipitation and growth of the precipitates has been analysed by using SEM techniques. The fracture mechanisms that are active for the different ageing treatments are identified as a function of temperature and time. Local approach methods are used to discuss the influence of the precipitation and growth of precipitates on the toughness or fracture in  the different aged materials.

Nickel base alloys due to their high performances have been widely used in biomass and coal fired power plants. They can undertake plastic deformation with different strain rates such as those typically seen during creep and fatigue at elevated temperatures. In this study, the mechanical behaviors of Alloy 617 with strain rates from 10-2/s down to 10-6/s at temperatures of 650C and 700C have been studied using tensile tests. Furthermore, the microstructures have been investigated using electron backscatter detection and electron channeling contrast imaging. At relatively high strain rate, the alloy shows higher fracture strains at these temperatures. The microstructure investigation shows that it is caused by twinning induced plasticity due to DSA. The fracture strain reaches the highest value at a strain rate of 10-4/s and then it decreases dramatically. At strain rate of 10-6/s, the fracture strain at high temperature is now smaller than that at room temperature, and the strength also decreases with further decreasing strain rate. Dynamic recrystallization can also be observed usually combined with crack initiation and propagation. This is a new type of observation and the mechanisms involved are discussed. © (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.

Nickel-base alloys due to their high performances have been widely used in biomass and coal fired power plants. They can undertake plastic deformation with different strain rates such as those typically seen during creep and fatigue at elevated temperatures. In this study, the mechanical behaviours of Alloy 617 with strain rates from 10-2/s down to 10-6/s at temperatures of 650°C and 700°C have been studied using tensile tests. Furthermore, the microstructures have been investigated using electron backscatter detection and electron channeling contrast imaging. At relatively high strain rate, the alloy shows higher fracture strains at these temperatures. The microstructure investigation shows that it is caused by twinning induced plasticity due to DSA. The fracture strain reaches the highest value at a strain rate of 10-4/s and then it decreases  dramatically. At strain rate of 10-6/s, the fracture strain at high temperature is now smaller than that at room temperature, and the strength also decreases with further decreasing strain rate. Dynamic recrystallization can also be observed usually combined with crack initiation and propagation. This is a new type of observation and the mechanisms involved are discussed.

The formation of α’ martensite at the surface of an AISI 304 stainless steel subjected to cyclic heating in humidified air is reported. The α’ martensite formed during the cooling part of the cyclic tests due to local depletion of Cr and Mn and transformed back to austenite when the temperature again rose to 650 °C. The size of the α’ martensite region increased with increasing number of cycles. Thermodynamical simulations were used as basis for discussing the formation of α’ martensite. The effect of the α’ martensite on corrosion is also discussed.

The strain-rate dependent deformation of the superalloy Haynes 282 during slow strain-rate tensile testing (SSRT) at 700 C has been investigated. The stress-strain response is remarkably well described by a simple constitutive model over a wide range of different strain-rates. The microstructure development is characterised and related to the influence of both strainrate dependent and independent deformation. Damage and cracking similar to what has been observed previously during conventional creep testing of Haynes 282 was found and explained. The model and the microstructure investigations show that the deformation and damage mechanisms during SSRT are essentially the same as under creep.

In this study an advanced method for investigation of the microstructure such as electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) together with in-situ tensile test in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) has been used at room temperature and 300°C. EBSD analyses provide information about crystallographic orientation in the microstructure and dislocation structures caused by deformation. The in-situ tensile tests enabled the same area to be investigated at different strain levels. For the same macroscopic strain values a lower average misorientation in individual grains at elevated temperature indicates that less residual strain at grain level are developed compared to room temperature. For both temperatures, while large scatters in grain average misorientation are observed for grains of similar size, there seems to be a tendency showing that larger grains may accumulate somewhat more strains.

Influences of dynamic strain ageing and long term ageing on deformation, damage and fracture behaviors of Alloy 617 material have been studied. Dynamic strain ageing can occur in this alloy at temperature from 400 to 700°C, which leads to a strain hardening and also an increase in fracture strain due to plastic deformation caused by twinning. Long term ageing at 700°C for up to 20 000 hours can cause different precipitation such as γ ́, M₆C (Mo-rich) and M₂₃C₆ (Cr-rich) carbides. These carbides are both inter-and intra-granular particles. The long term ageing reduces the fracture toughness of the material, but the alloy can still have rather high impact toughness and fracture toughness even with an ageing at 700°C for 20 000 hour. The mechanisms have been studied using electron backscatter detection and electron channeling contrast imaging. It shows that besides dislocation slip, twinning is another main deformation mechanism in these aged Alloy 617 materials. At the crack front, plenty of micro or nanotwins can be observed. The formation of these twins leads to a high ductility and toughness which is a new observation or a new concept for this type of material.

The building direction of a laser powder bed fused (L-PBF) material is critical since the existing temperature gradient is one of the main factors that influence the formation of the microstructure and thus, influences the mechanical properties of the material. In this contribution, the mechanical properties at high temperatures of a precipitation strengthened L-PBFed IN738LC nickel -based superalloy have been studied. The microstructure of the alloy has been characterized and statistically studied to synthesize representative volume elements (RVE) for performing crystal plasticity (CP) simulations. The results of this investigation evinced the effect of the building direction on the mechanical properties of the materials. Specimens loaded perpendicular to the building direction (BD) showed superior elastic properties. The plastic behavior of the alloy was found, however, not to be substantially affected by the BD. A CP-FEM model was modified to incorporate Kear- Wilsdorf (K -W) locks to model plastic deformation at elevated temperatures. The simulations substantiated that this mechanism influences significantly the material's deformation behavior in the moderate temperature range. At high temperature, the prediction was less accurate owing to a change in the operating mechanisms for plastic deformation, where degradation of the material was found to strongly influence the behavior. In turn, the degradation was associated to the oxidation along grain boundaries and intergranular crack propagation.

In laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF), most powders are not melted in the chamber and collected after the printing process. Powder reuse is appreciable without sacrificing the mechanical properties of target components. To understand the influences of powder reuse on mechanical performance, a nickel-based superalloy, IN738LC, was investigated. Powder morphology, microstructure and chemical compositions of virgin and reused powders were characterized. An increase in oxygen content, generally metallic oxides, was located on the surface of powders. Monotonic tensile and cyclic fatigue were tested. Negligible deterioration in strength and tensile ductility were found, while scattered fatigue performance with regard to fatigue life was shown. Deformation and fatigue crack propagation mechanisms were discussed for describing the powder degradation effects.

The formation mechanism of white layers during broaching and their mechanical properties are not well investigated and understood to date. In the present study, multiple advanced characterization techniques with nano-scale resolution, including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD), atom probe tomography (APT) as well as nano-indentation, have been used to systematically examine the microstructural evolution and corresponding mechanical properties of a surface white layer formed when broaching the nickel-based superalloy Inconel 718.

TEM observations showed that the broached white layer consists of nano-sized grains, mostly in the range of 20–50 nm. The crystallographic texture detected by TKD further revealed that the refined microstructure is primarily caused by strong shear deformation. Co-located Al-rich and Nb-rich fine clusters have been identified by APT, which are most likely to be γ′ and γ′′ clusters in a form of co-precipitates, where the clusters showed elongated and aligned appearance associated with the severe shearing history. The microstructural characteristics and crystallography of the broached white layer suggest that it was essentially formed by adiabatic shear localization in which the dominant metallurgical process is rotational dynamic recrystallization based on mechanically-driven subgrain rotations. The grain refinement within the white layer led to an increase of the surface nano-hardness by 14% and a reduction in elastic modulus by nearly 10% compared to that of the bulk material. This is primarily due to the greatly increased volume fraction of grain boundaries, when the grain size was reduced down to the nanoscale.

This paper presents a study to characterize the surface integrity in wire electrical discharge machining (EDM) of Inconel 718 and investigate its effect on the fatigue performance of the alloy in a four-point bending fatigue mode at room temperature. The EDM process generates a rough recast surface with multi-types of defects. Surface craters, micro-cracks and micro-voids within the recast layer have been found to be most detrimental from the point of view of fatigue as they could provide many preferential initiation sites for fatigue cracks. As a consequence, the specimens with an EDM cut surface show an approximately 30% decrease in fatigue life compared to those with a polished surface, and multiple crack origins were observed on the fracture surface. The high tensile residual stresses generated on the EDM cut surface, on the other hand, are also believed to be partly responsible for the loss in fatigue life of the alloy machined by EDM.

In this study, the conjoint effect of a broaching operation, similar to that used for machining fir-tree slots on turbine discs, and subsequent heat treatments at 550 °C and 650 °C on the fatigue performance and corresponding crack initiation behavior of forged Inconel 718 has been investigated. Four-point bending fatigue tests were conducted under load control on specimens of two groups, i.e. a polished group and a broached group, with totally six different surface conditions. Compared to the as-polished specimens, a beneficial effect of the broaching operation was found on the fatigue life due to the high compressive residual stresses on the broached surface which transfer the fatigue crack initiation from surface to sub-surface regions. Introducing a heat treatment generally deteriorated the fatigue performance of the alloy because of the oxidation assisted crack initiation, while the reduction in fatigue life was found to be more remarkable for the broached specimens, in particular when heat treated at 650 °C, as the thermal impact also led to a great relaxation of the compressive residual stresses; the combined effect, together with the substantial anomalies created by broaching on the surface, such as cracked carbides and machining grooves, caused an increased propensity to surface cracking in fatigue and consequently a loss of the lifetime. Furthermore, it was found that the occurrence of surface recrystallization at elevated temperatures in machined Inconel 718 could lead to intergranular oxidation, creating micro-notches as preferable sites for the fatigue crack initiation.

Inconel 718 is a nickel based superalloy that is widely used as a turbine disc material in gas turbine industries. This study details the effect of thermal exposure on the residual stresses produced when broaching Inconel 718. The chosen parameters for broaching in this study are similar to those used when manufacturing turbine discs. The broaching operation produced a high level of tensile residual stresses at the broached surface. A layer with tensile residual stresses was formed in the sub-surface region, followed by a layer several times thicker with compressive residual stresses. Thermal exposure was conducted at 550 °C. The depth distributions of residual stresses after thermal exposure are presented and discussed in this paper. Complete relaxation of the surface tensile residual stresses was observed after 30 h thermal exposure, whereas the 3000 h thermal exposure influenced both the surface and sub-surface residual stress states.

The current study focused on the surface integrity issues associated with broaching of Inconel 718 and the structural stability of the broached specimen at high temperatures, mainly involving the microstructural changes and residual stress relaxation. The broaching operation was performed using similar cutting conditions as that used in turbo machinery industries for machining fir-tree root fixings on turbine disks. Thermal exposure was conducted at 723 K, 823 K, and 923 K (450 A degrees C, 550 A degrees C, and 650 A degrees C) for 30, 300, and 3000 hours, respectively. Surface cavities and debris dragging, sub-surface cracks, high intensity of plastic deformation, as well as the generation of tensile residual stresses were identified to be the main issues in surface integrity for the broached Inconel 718. When a subsequent heating was applied, surface recrystallization and alpha-Cr precipitation occurred beneath the broached surface depending on the applied temperature and exposure time. The plastic deformation induced by the broaching is responsible for these microstructural changes. The surface tension was completely relaxed in a short time at the temperature where surface recrystallization occurred. The tensile layer on the sub-surface, however, exhibited a much higher resistance to the stress relief annealing. Oxidation is inevitable at high temperatures. The study found that the surface recrystallization could promote the local Cr diffusion on the broached surface.

The novel wrought nickel-based superalloy, AD 730™, is a good candidate material for turbine disc applications at high temperatures beyond 650 °C. The present study focuses on the machining performance of this newly developed alloy under high-speed turning conditions with advanced PCBN tools. Meanwhile, the machined surface integrity as influenced by cutting speed and feed rate was also investigated. The surface integrity was thoroughly characterized in terms of surface roughness and morphology, machining-induced plastic deformation, white layer formation, and residual stresses. It has been found that the cutting speed and feed rate had a strong effect on the cutting forces and resultant surface integrity. The cutting forces required when machining the alloy were gradually reduced with increasing cutting speed, while at 250 m/min and above, the flank tool wear became stronger which led to increased thrust force and feed force. A higher feed rate, on the other hand, always resulted in higher cutting forces. Increasing the cutting speed and feed rate in general deteriorated the surface integrity. High cutting speeds within the range of 200–250 m/min and a low feed rate of 0.1 mm/rev are preferable in order to implement more cost-effective machining without largely reducing the surface quality achieved. The formation of tensile residual stresses on the machined AD 730™, however, could be of a concern where good fatigue resistance is critical.

The present study highlights the effect of cooling and post-machining surface treatment of shot peening on the residual stresses and corresponding fatigue life of milled superalloy Inconel 718. It was found that tensile residual stresses were created on the milled surface, regardless of the use of coolant, however, the wet milling operation led to a lower surface tension and a reduced thickness of the tensile layer. The shot peening performed on the dry-milled specimens completely annihilated the surface tensile residual tresses and introduced a high level of surface compression. A comparable fatigue life for the wet-milled specimens was obtained as compared with the specimens prepared by dry milling. This is very likely attributed to that the milling-induced surface damage with respect to cracked non-metallic inclusions is the predominant cause of the fatigue failure. The presence of the compressive layer induced by shot peening resulted in a significant increase of the fatigue life and strength, while the extent to which the lifetime was prolonged was decreased as the applied load was increased.

A higher gas turbine efficiency can be achieved by increasing the operating temperature in hot sections. AD730™ is a recently-developed wrought/cast nickel-based superalloy which can maintain excellent mechanical properties above 700 ℃. However, machining of AD730™ could be a difficult task like other nickel-based superalloys. Therefore, studies are needed with respect to the machinability of this new alloy.

In this paper, high-speed turning was performed on AD730™ using polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) tools and coated tungsten carbide (WC) tools at varied cutting speeds. The surface integrity was assessed in two important aspects, i.e., surface and sub-surface plastic deformation and residual stresses. The PCBN tools generally showed better performance compared with the WC tools since it led to reduced machining time without largely compromising the surface integrity achieved. The optimal cutting speed was identified in the range of 200-250 m/min when using the PCBN tools, which gives rise to a good combination of machining efficiency and surface integrity. The further increase of the cutting speed to 300 m/min resulted in severe and deep plastic deformation. Meanwhile, a continuous white layer was formed at the machined surface. When turning with the WC tools, the increased cutting speed from 80 m/min to 100 m/min showed very little effect with respect to the plastic deformation on the machined surface. It was found that tensile residual stresses were developed on all machined surfaces no matter when the PCBN or WC tools were used, and the surface tension was generally increased with increasing cutting speed. The tensile layer might need to be modified by e.g., post-machining surface treatments such as shot peening, if taking good fatigue performance into consideration.

We have investigated the low cycle fatigue (LCF) properties and the extent of strengthening in a dense additively manufactured stainless steel containing different volume fractions of cell structures but having all other microstructure characteristics the same. The samples were produced by laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF), and the concentration of cell structures was varied systematically by varying the annealing treatments. Load-controlled fatigue experiments performed on samples with a high fraction of cell structures reveal an up to 23 times increase in fatigue life compared to an essentially cell-free sample of the same grain configuration. Multiscale electron microscopy characterizations reveal that the cell structures serve as the soft barriers to the dislocation propagation and the partials are the main carrier for cyclic loading. The cell structures, stabilized by the segregated atoms and misorientation between the adjacent cells, are retained during the entire plastic deformation, hence, can continuously interact with dislocations, promote the formation of nanotwins, and provide massive 3D network obstacles to the dislocation motion. The compositional micro-segregation caused by the cellular solidification features serves as another non-negligible strengthening mechanism to dislocation motion. Specifically, the cell structures with a high density of dislocation debris also appear to act as dislocation nucleation sites, very much like coherent twin boundaries. This work indicates the potential of additive manufacturing to design energy absorbent alloys with high performance by tailoring the microstructure through the printing process.

Anisotropic ductility in additively manufactured (AM) alloys, namely better ductility along the building direction (BD) has been extensively studied and traditionally attributed to the crystallographic texture. However, recent studies have shown significant ductility anisotropy in weakly or non-textured AM alloys, indicating that other factors may also play critical roles. To explore this, AM Inconel 718 with weak crystallographic texture was selected as the model material, and the in-situ high-energy X-ray diffraction tests together with multiscale microstructural characterization techniques were performed to explore the deformation micromechanisms. The results of this study, for the first time, revealed that the better ductility in the vertical specimen (loading parallel to BD) was partially due to the negative stress triaxiality factor (TF) of the {220} grains during plastic deformation, which results in the shrinkage or even healing of the microvoids. Furthermore, the & delta;-phase alignment in conjunction with grain boundary orientation were also proved to have a pronounced impact on the anisotropic ductility of AM alloys. On the other hand, though in the overall weak-textured microstructure, the proportion of 101 grains were marginally over other grains. Thus, the positive effect of {220} grains on ductility was stronger than the negative effect of {200} and {311} grains, contributing to the excellent failure elongation exceeding 12% for both samples. The findings of this study shed new light on the mechanisms underlying the anisotropic ductility of AM alloys and provide insight into strategies for enhancing their performance.

We report the effect of cell structures on the fatigue behavior of additively manufactured (AM) 316L stainless steel (316LSS). Compared with the cell-free samples, the fatigue process of fully cellular samples only consists of steady and overload stages, without an initial softening stage. Moreover, the fully cellular sample possesses higher strength, lower cyclic softening rate and longer lifetime. Microscopic analyses show no difference in grain orientations, dimensions, and shapes. However, the fully cellular samples show planar dislocation structures, whereas the cell-free samples display wavy dislocation structures. The existence of cell structures promotes the activation of planar slip, delays strain localization, and ultimately enhances the fatigue performance of AM 316LSS.