Crack growth rates during creep, fatigue and creep-fatigue in an austenitic feature weld specimen

Static creep crack growth tests and displacement controlled fatigue and creep-fatigue crack growth tests have been performed on austenitic feature weld specimens at 650°C. The creep-fatigue tests incorporated hold times of up to 96 h. During these tests, crack growth appeared to comprise cyclic and dwell components. Cyclic crack growth components were characterised by the fracture mechanics parameter K whilst creep crack growth contributions were correlated with C*. In roder to determine K and C* for the non-standard feature weld specimen, elastic and elastic-plastic creep finite element analyses were conducted. Good correspondence is shown between the feature weld data and comparable data from compact tension specimen tests on similar materials. Equations obtained from the compact tension specimen results, which describe total crack growth rates as the sum of the cyclic and dwell contributions, are shown to adequately describe the features test results also. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that a reference stress approach can be used to estimate C* for the features specimens.