Fretting fatigue of single crystal nickel at 600 °C

An experimental setup has been developed to conduct fretting fatigue tests at 610 °C and fretting fatigue lives are characterized for the contacting pair of IN100 and single crystal nickel subjected to a range of loading conditions. A well characterized set of experiments have been conducted to obtain the friction coefficient in the slip zone. A robust quasi-analytical approach, based on solution to singular integral equations, has been used to analyze the contact stresses. Different multi-axial fatigue parameters have been investigated for their ability to predict the initiation life of the specimens. An estimation of crack propagation life was made using conventional fracture mechanics approaches, after making certain assumptions to simplify the problem. Total life was predicted using nucleation life from different parameters and propagation life from conventional fracture mechanics approach. These predicted lives were compared with experimentally observed failure lives. The quality of the comparison provides confidence in the notion that conventional life prediction tools can be used to assess fretting fatigue at elevated temperatures.