Evaluation of Fatigue Life on Alloy 617 Base Metal and Alloy 617/Alloy 617 Weld Joints under Low Cycle Fatigue Loading

Abstract

Generally, the mechanical components and structures are joined by many welding techniques, and therefore the welded joints are inevitable in the construction of structures. The Alloy 617 was initially developed for high temperature applications above 800℃. It is often considered for use in aircraft and gas turbines, chemical manufacturing components, and power generation structures. Especially, the Alloy 617 is the primary candidate for construction of intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) on a very high temperature reactor (VHTR) system. In the present paper, the low cycle fatigue (LCF) life of Alloy 617 base metal (BM) and the gas tungsten arc welded (GTAWed) weld joints (WJ) are evaluated by using the previous experimental results under strain controlled LCF tests. The LCF tests have been performed at room temperature with total strain ranges of 0.6, 0.9, 1.2 and 1.5%. The LCF lives for the BM and WJ have been evaluated from the Coffin-Manson and strain energy based life methods. For both the BM and WJ, the LCF lives predicted by both Coffin-Manson and strain energy based life methods was found to well coincide with the experimental data.