Inhomogeneous deformation in INCONEL 718 during monotonic and cyclic loadings

The deformation microstructures produced by room-temperature monotonie tensile and uniaxial low-cycle fatigue tests in aged (precipitate-hardened) INCONEL 718 were examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Regularly spaced arrays of deformation bands on {111} slip planes were observed. Under monotonie loading, the dislocation structure within a deformation band formed an inverse pileup at a grain boundary, indicating that the boundary was the probable dislocation source. Under fatigue loading, the bands contained a high density of dislocations in a complex arrangement, which was attained after relatively few cycles. Samples of homogenized (precipitate-free) material were deformed monotonically in tension for comparison with the aged material. Early in the deformation, there was only one deformation band per grain and little evidence of work hardening; that is, there was a region of constant flow stress. With increased deformation, work hardening began, more bands nucleated, and their spacing became similar to that in the aged material. This result demonstrates that the degree of coarseness of inhomogeneous deformation in this material was not necessarily a result of a softening process within the bands because of precipitate shearing, but rather, it was primarily a function of the amount of work hardening within the bands. The regularity of the bands and the dislocation structure can be rationalized in terms of a periodic resistance to glide of the dislocations due to the presence of the precipitates and a distribution of dislocation sources along the grain boundaries. D.W. WORTHEM, formerly Graduate Student, Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois F.A. LECKIE, formerly Professor, Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois