THERMAL-MECHANICAL FATIGUE OF MAR-M 509 SUPERALLOY. COMPARISON WITH LOW-CYCLE FATIGUE BEHAVIOUR

Abstract— The thermal-mechanical fatigue behaviour of a cast cobalt based superalloy, MAR-M 509 was investigated. Hollow smooth specimens were submitted to temperature cycling between 600 and 1050°C. The mechanical strain vs temperature cycle shows a diamond shape with peak strains at intermediate temperatures. The stress-strain behaviour as well as fatigue life curves are reported. A significant part of total life is spent in crack initiation. Comparison with isothermal low cycle fatigue was made at the temperature where peak strains occurred. Isothermal low cycle fatigue life to crack initiation was shown to give a conservative estimate of thermal mechanical fatigue life provided extra strains due to differences in thermal expansion coefficients of the oxide scale and base alloy were taken into account.