A simple unified critical plane damage parameter for high-temperature LCF life prediction of a Ni-based DS superalloy

A simple unified critical plane damage parameter (i.e., the modified resolved shear strain range Δγ _mod) based on a slip mechanism-related critical plane concept was proposed in this paper, integrating life prediction of low cycle fatigue (LCF) behavior affected by anisotropy, load ratio and stress concentration into one framework, where the critical plane is determined as the slip plane on which the damage parameter is the maximum during the cycle. For notched specimens, this procedure was specially carried out at the fatigue initiation sites located on the notch surface, which were well predicted by the distribution of Von-Mises stress range Δσ _Mises. The applications of this damage parameter in a directionally solidified superalloy at high temperatures showed that the LCF lives resulting from complicated loading conditions (i.e., variable material orientation, temperature, loading ratio and notch feature) were well simulated consistently, and the predicted fatigue life is within a scatter band of ±3.