An Accelerated Creep Testing Program for Nickel Based Superalloys
Abstract
In order to improve the energy production within the United States, new materials are developed with the goal of increased functionality. These materials are required to perform at extreme pressures and temperatures (up to and beyond 200MPa and 650℃) as well as be sustainable beyond 105 hours. Before developing these materials into components for power generation, mechanical testing is required to better understand the behavior of these materials at various loads and temperatures. The longest of these tests is the conventional creep test which is a real time test that can beyond 105 hours depending on service conditions. Hundreds of specimens must be tested before being approved for use in power generation, but it is extremely difficult to rapidly qualify when each material is required to exceed 105 hours making testing through conventional means unfeasible. While others have designed accelerated testing methods to help qualify materials, many of these experiments use an empirical approach that requires test data to fit already existing creep data. In this study, an accelerated creep test called the stepped isostress method (SSM) is then applied to wrought Inconel 718 (IN 718) specimens. A test matrix is designed using deformation mechanism maps, time-temperature-transformation diagrams, and time-temperature-precipitation diagrams, in order to ensure that microstructurally, the accelerated creep tests fail similarly to the conventional creep tests. The data from the stepped isostress method is then applied to the McVetty and Sin-hyperbolic (Sinh) constitutive models in order to generate a creep master curve. The results from the model fits are then compared to the conventional creep data done from experiments as well as from the NIMS database for Inconel 718. Optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy are used to compare the evolution of the microstructure from the conventional creep and accelerated creep tests. It is found that using the Sinh model on the accelerated creep data provides reasonable creep rupture predictions when compared to the scatter band of creep tests. It was also observed that the microstructural evolution between the SSM experiments and creep tests were very similar in terms of the volume fraction of precipitates and phases.
Subject Area
Mechanical engineering
Recommended Citation
Mach, Robert Miguel, "An Accelerated Creep Testing Program for Nickel Based Superalloys" (2020). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI27999812.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI27999812