High-cycle fatigue properties of the ODS-alloy MA 6000 at 850 °C

The high cycle fatigue (HCF) and cyclic crack growth rate (CCGR) properties of the dispersion strengthened ODS-alloy MA 6000 were investigated with smooth bars and with fracture mechanics samples at 850 °C. The material was very coarse grained with the grains elongated in the rolling direction. Fatigue crack initiation and crack propagation were studied parallel and perpendicular to the rolling direction and a pronounced influence of orientation was found. The fatigue limit of sam-ples cut parallel to the grain elongation direction (p-samples) was almost a factor of 2 higher than the one of samples cut transverse to the elongation direction (t-samples). Inclusions were found to be responsible for crack initiation. For p-samples a reasonable agreement between particle size, fatigue limit, and crack growth behavior was found. For t-type samples such an agreement also exists provided differences in the crack growth behavior of short cracks and long cracks are taken into consideration. The low fatigue strength of t-samples could be linked with low Young's modulus in this direction. The crack propagation rate of long cracks is lower in t-samples than in p-samples due to crack branching along the grain boundaries. HCF-strength of MA 6000 is high compared to conventional cast alloys mainly because of reduced size of crack nucleation sites and higher fatigue threshold stress intensity range ΔK_th, as a result of higher Young's modulus.