Low cycle fatigue behavior of superalloy GH4169 in high temperature gas environment

Turbine components (blades, guides and casing) of gas turbine engine usually suffer from fatigue load in company with a HTG environment in service. The corrosive substances in HTG can deposit on the surface of turbine components and induce accelerated damage known as hot corrosion. In this study, an experimental system is designed and built up to conduct LCF tests of superalloy in HTG environment. The influence of HTG on the LCF behavior of the nickel-base superalloy GH4169 at 650°C is studied. According to the test results, the average fatigue life of the specimens in HTG environment (22270 cycles) is about 31.5% less than that in air (32496 cycles). The protective oxide film on the surface of the specimen can be destroyed by the electrochemical reaction between HTG and oxide film. Compared with the specimen tested in air, there are more fatigue sources in the specimen tested in HTG environment, and the transgranular–intergranular transition occurs in the crack growth area.