Fatigue Crack Growth Behavior of Inconel 617 Alloy: Effect of Microstructure, Temperature, Loading, Corrosion and Creep-Fatigue Interaction

Nickel based super alloys have evolved a potential material for high temperature applications including nuclear reactors, chemical industries, aerospace sector and superheated tubes. Inconel alloy 617 is the Nickel based super alloys that has found extensive use in power generating plants where service temperatures are very high. In the past few decades, researchers have shown keen interest in investigating the mechanical behaviour of Inconel 617 alloy under different operating conditions. Current work provides a state of art review on fatigue crack growth (FCG) behaviour of alloy 617 under different operating conditions. Effect of microstructural characteristics such as grain geometries, porosity and inclusions on FCG in alloy 617 has been presented in detail. Elevated temperatures close to melting point have a drastic change on FCG in engineering materials. In view of this, effect of elevated temperatures on FCG behaviour of alloy 617 has been discussed. Influence of load types, load ratios and wave forms on the characteristics of alloy 617 has also been reviewed in the current paper. Chances of corrosion damage gets enhanced at elevated temperatures which has a great impact on residual life of engineering structures. Therefore, studies related to behaviour of alloy 617 under corrosive environments are also discussed in detail. The work concludes with the investigations performed on the creep-fatigue interactions in Inconel 617 as such interactions play a magnificent role in damage accumulation leading to structural failures.