Papers by Author: Hui Ji Shi

Abstract: The effect of recrystallization on the low cycle fatigue life of DZ4 directionally solidified superalloy was investigated for specimens with three different recrystallized layers, which were generated by shot peening (0.1MPa, 0.3MPa and 0.5MPa respectively) and a subsequent annealing heat treatment. The fatigue life showed a decrease for recrystallized specimens with shot-peening of 0.1 MPa and 0.3 MPa, and an unusual increase for that of 0.5MPa, in comparison with the original DZ4 specimen. In-situ SEM observations were performed on the short crack growth behaviors for both original and recrystallized specimens, which revealed the fracture mechanism and the interaction with microstructure. Quantitative analysis of fatigue crack growth rates rationalized the influence of recrystallization on the low-cycle fatigue life of DZ4.

Abstract: The Plasma transferred arc welding (PTAW) is widely used for hardfacing components exposed to severe conditions. Without post welding heat treatments, large tensile residual stresses remain in the hardfacing coating, which is detrimental. In this paper, a set of post welding heat treatments was evaluated for the heat-resistant steel substrate – Co-based alloy hardfacing coating system. Microstructural and mechanical properties, including the chemical phases of coating surface, the microstructure of coating surface, the Vickers hardness and the residual welding stress, were investigated before and after the heat treatments. Results revealed that during the heat treatments, some elements reprecipitated and the secondary carbide Cr23C6 was formed. After the treatments, a more regular structure and a higher Vickers hardness were obtained. Moreover, the tensile residual stresses in the coating decreased significantly. Therefore, it can be inferred that the post welding heat treatments employed in this paper were proper for this material system.

Abstract: Small fatigue crack behaviors in a nickel-based directionally solidified superalloy DZ4 were studied by in situ scanning electron microscopy. The crack initiation and propagation manners were identified under different temperatures, i.e. 25oC, 350oC, 700oC. Crack growth showed to be associated with the configuration and relative direction of carbide. The anomalous short crack growth was pronounced at 25oC, 350oC and not evident at 700oC, which was analyzed by in situ examining the effect of microstructure.

Abstract: Damage of metals due to the influence of hydrogen is quite frequent and leads to dangerous failures. The characteristics of the hydrogen embrittlemnt of the 65Mn steel were evaluated with small punch test. With the increment of the amount of the hydrogen absorbed into the alloy at room temperature, the strength and the toughness of the material reduce. From the small punch experimental results, it is found the total impact energy, the fracture strain and the fracture stress decrease with the increment of the cathodic hydrogen charging time. The fracture surfaces change from the typical ductile fracture with big voids to the typical intergranular brittle fracture mode after hydrogen absorbed in the specimens with higher charging current density.

Abstract: The main task of this paper was to evaluate the influence of hardfacing technique and service temperature on the fatigue properties of heat-resistant steel X45CrSi9-3 coated with Co-based alloy Stellite 12. The results of rotating bending fatigue tests showed that at room temperature (RT), the fatigue strength of specimens welded by the acetylene gas welding (AGW) was lower than that of specimens welded by the plasma transferred arc welding (PTAW). For PTAW specimens, the fatigue strength at 500oC was much higher than that at RT. Two failure modes were presented, one was termed as the coating failure mode at RT and the other was termed as coating-interface failure mode at 500oC. The fatigue life prediction was conducted by using a modified Murakami’s model.

Abstract: Experiments of fracture toughness with non-standard SENB specimens of five different thicknesses were performed to investigate the size effect on the ductile and brittle fracture for different temperatures. From the experimental results it is found that size effects both brittle and ductile fracture with the same trend but for different mechanical reasons. The ductile fracture toughness increases firstly with increased plastic deformation zone size and plastic fracture strain under general yielding conditions, and then drops down due to the plastic deformation zone size not changing much which is less than the residual ligament width and the increase of the proportion of the high stress triaxiality zone to the whole specimen. The fracture toughness of the lower shelf increases with increasing thickness of the plastic deformation zone size under small scale yielding conditions, and then drops down due to the increase of the high out-of-plane constraint.

Abstract: Specimens of a directionally solidified superalloy with different shot peening pressure were annealed at 1220oC in vacuum condition to get recrystallized surface layers with different micro-structures. Low cycle fatigue tests of these specimens were performed at room temperature and 400oC by using an electrohydraulic load frame in the SEM system for real-time observation. The initiation and propagation of cracks were inspected and the influence of the micro-structure of the recrystallized layer on the material fatigue behavior was analyzed. The low cycle fatigue life of the specimens depends mainly on the characteristics of the recrystallized layer. When the shot peening pressure is lower, the recrystallized layer is thin and not integrated, and the fatigue life decreases obviously in comparison with that of the specimen without recrystallized surface layer. When the shot peening pressure increases, the recrystal grains are more integrated, and the fatigue life rises. A comparison of the recrystallized layers between the blade surface and the specimen surface has been done and it points that the incompact surface recrystal layer is very dangerous to gas turbine blades.

Abstract: In structural welded joints after long-term service under elevated temperature, fracture occurred mainly in the heat affected zone (HAZ). Recently, the nucleation and growth of creep voids in the fine-grained HAZ of weldments, recognized as Type IV fracture, has become an important problem for ferritic heat resisting steel. In this paper, a new computational model was presented to analyse the void growth induced creep damage development in HAZ. The new constitutive model based on continuum damage mechanics (CDM) equations is combined with a micromechanism-based model in order to account for the void growth process, which is different from the previous studies of creep damage. Material properties used for the creep damage computations are fitted from actual creep test data. Basic benchmark tests were performed to verify the new computational model. Then the model was used to study the creep damage development in the welded joints where four different material properties, base material, coarse-grained HAZ, fine-grained HAZ, and weld material, are taken into account. The numerical simulation results for creep lifetimes agreed well with the experimental results.

Abstract: The fatigue behaviors of a directionally solidified (DS) nickel base superalloy, coated with a MCrAlY coating (NiCrAlYSi) were studied. Two kinds of tests were performed. One kind of tests are low cycle fatigue (LCF) test under strain control at different temperatures, another kind of tests are stress controlled LCF test with SEM-servo hydraulic testing machine for in situ cracking observation. The results show that the effect of coating on LCF life of coating/substrate system was rather different according to different strain levels and temperatures. The coating has no or less effect on LCF life under high strain range and the LCF life is governed by fatigue behavior of substrate in spite of the difference of temperature. However, when strain range is smaller, crack initiation and propagation are observably affected by temperature, which leads to a shorter LCF life of coating/substrate system at 500°C and a longer LCF life at 760°C or 980°C. This means the failure of coating/substrate system is dominated by the cracking of surface coating under low strain range. The brittleness at 500°C lower than DBTT results in rapid stage II crack propagation. The crack initiation from coating surface was in situ observed at room temperature and 700 °C and it was found that cracks usually initiated from the surface roughness of coating and then propagate to failure. The brittleness and surface roughness are the basic acceptable causes leading to the early damage of a coating/substrate system.

Abstract: Detailed experiments of fracture toughness in which SENB specimens of five different thicknesses were included were carried out to investigate the size effect in the ductile to brittle transition temperature region. It is found that the fracture toughness of the upper shelf increases with the thickness of the specimens with the similar geometry. While the fracture toughness of the lower shelf decreases with the thickness in the range of 4mm to 12mm and then drops up from 12mm to 16mm with the appearance of shear lips which present the shearing fracture under the plane stress state. The tearing modulus dJ/da which determines the resistance to stable crack growth increases with the increment of thickness and the reduction of the temperature. The results of the stress triaxiality increasing with the reduction of the thickness explain well the experimental results.