The present work describes the shear creep behavior of the superalloy LEK 94 at temperatures between 980 and 1050 °C and shear stresses between 50 and 140 MPa for loading on the macroscopic crystallographic shear system (MCSS) (011)[01-1]. The strain rate versus strain curves show short primary and extended secondary creep regimes. We find an apparent activation energy for creep of Qapp = 466 kJ/mol and a Norton-law stress exponent of n = 6. With scanning transmission electron microscopy, we characterize three material states that differ in temperature, applied stress, and accumulated strain/time. Rafting develops perpendicular to the maximum principal stress direction, gamma channels fill with dislocations, superdislocations cut gamma' particles, and dislocation networks form at gamma/gamma' interfaces. Our findings are in agreement with previous results for high-temperature and low-stress [001] and [110] tensile creep testing, and for shear creep testing of the superalloys CMSX-4 and CMSX-6 on the MCSSs (111)[01-1] and (001)[100]. The parameters that characterize the evolving gamma/gamma' microstructure and the evolving dislocation substructures depend on creep temperature, stress, strain, and time.
The uniaxial, torsional and axial-torsional thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) behavior of the near-γ TiAl-alloy TNB-V5 was investigated. TMF tests were performed at 400-800 °C with mechanical strain amplitudes ranging from 0.15% to 0.7%. The tests were conducted thermomechanically in-phase (IP) and out-of-phase (OP).
For the same lifetimes, uniaxial IP tests required the highest strain amplitudes, while OP test conditions were most damaging and needed the lowest strain amplitudes. The Mises equivalent mechanical strain amplitudes of pure torsional tests were found in between uniaxial in-phase and out-of-phase tests for the same lifetimes. The non-proportional multiaxial out-of-phase test showed a lower lifetime at the same equivalent mechanical strain amplitude compared to the other types of tests.
The microstructure has been characterized applying electron microscopy and microstructural parameters such as fraction of twinned grains, grain size, lamellar distance and dislocation density have been quantified.