The low-cycle fatigue and fatigue-crack-growth behavior of HAYNES® HR-120 alloy

The low-cycle fatigue and fatigue-crack-growth behavior of the HAYNES HR-120 alloy was investigated over the temperature range of 24 degreesC to 980 degreesC in laboratory air. The result showed that increasing the temperature usually led to a substantial decrease in the low-cycle fatigue life. The reduction of fatigue life could be attributed to oxidation and dynamic strain-aging (DSA) processes. The strain vs fatigue-life data obtained at different temperatures were analyzed. It was also found that the fatigue-crack-growth rate per cycle generally increased with increasing temperature and R ratio (R = sigma(min)/sigma(max), where sigma(min) and sigma(max) are the applied minimum and maximum stresses, respectively). The relationship between the stress-intensity-factor range and fatigue-crack-growth rate was determined. Scanning-electron-microscopy (SEM) examinations of the fracture surfaces revealed that the fatigue cracks initiated and propagated predominantly in a transgranular mode.