A Review of Strain Age Cracking in Nickel Based Superalloys

Paper in proceeding, 2016

This paper reviews the literature with emphasis on strain age cracking, a cracking phenomenon that can occur during welding or heat treatment of precipitation hardening superalloys. The influence of chemical composition in terms of e.g. hardening elements and impurities, microstructure of base material and weld zone, precipitation-induced stress development, welding heat input, restraint and post weld heat treatment (PWHT) conditions is discussed and related to the cracking susceptibility of different nickel based superalloys. Furthermore, an overview on available testing methods is presented and scrutinized. As of now, neither standardized nor universally applicable procedure is available where the now existing tests generally can be divided into two groups; procedures representing actual welds usually providing qualitative comparisons under specified conditions, and simulative tests like those based on the Gleeble® system which can provide fundamental insight into the ongoing mechanisms.