International Journal of Fatigue 87 (2016) 351358

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International Journal of Fatigue

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfatigue

Damage propagation mechanism in low-cycle creep fatigue

of CuCrZr alloy
Masaya Deguchi a,b,, Hirobumi Tobe a, Eiichi Sato a
a
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Chuo, Sagamihara 252-5210, Japan
b
Department of Materials Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper describes a characteristic damage propagation mechanism in low-cycle creepfatigue of
Received 22 December 2015 Cu0.7Cr0.09Zr (mass%), as investigated by creepfatigue tests including strain controlled fatigue and
Received in revised form 12 February 2016 stress-holding type creep, and following microstructural observations by scanning electron microscopy
Accepted 16 February 2016
(SEM). The total stress-holding time until rupture in the creepfatigue test was shorter than one-tenth
Available online 24 February 2016
of the rupture life in the simple creep test, and the rupture life of the specimen in the creepfatigue test
was shorter than half of that in the simple fatigue test. The SEM images suggest that the connection
Keywords:
between fatigue crack propagating along grain boundaries and intergranular creep voids rapidly
Copper alloys
Creepfatigue
accelerates crack propagation.
Crack paths Crown Copyright 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Strain controlled fatigue

1. Introduction steady-state combustion. Engines in conventional launching rock-

The copper-based dilute CuCrZr alloy is one of the well-
known precipitation-strengthened alloys [1]. This alloy exhibits
good fatigue resistance because its zirconium additive results in
lower stacking fault energy; it also exhibits a high thermal conduc-
tivity [2]. To make use of these characteristics, researchers have
investigated CuCrZr alloys as candidate heat-transfer materials
for the next-generation fusion reactor known as the International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) [3].
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has started
developing a new liquid rocket engine, LE-9, with a combustion
chamber containing an inner cylinder made of CuCrZr alloy
because of its intermediate strength, good fatigue resistance, and
excellent thermal conductivity [4]. To prevent the combustion
chamber from melting during operation, the inner cylinder has
grooves with thin walls for liquid hydrogen as coolant. During
engine combustion, this thin wall is exposed on one side to liquid
hydrogen and on the other side to combustion gases (Fig. 1). Thus,
in one engine operation cycle, the CuCrZr alloy is subjected to
thermal fatigue consisting of both one cyclic deformation corre-
sponding to start up and shut down and creep deformation during
Corresponding author at: Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Chuo, Sagamihara 252-5210,
Japan. Tel.: +81 50 3362 7539; fax: +81 42 759 8461.
E-mail addresses: deguchi.masaya@ac.jaxa.jp (M. Deguchi), tobe@isas.jaxa.jp
(H. Tobe), sato@isas.jaxa.jp (E. Sato).
ets are used after being subjected to several combustion tests. Very
low cycle life of this thermal fatigue has long been considered one
of the critical points for such engines [5]. Actually, after the quali-
fication test (QT) of another model of the engines, cracks were gen-
erated after a few dozen combustion cycle [6].
To evaluate the thermal fatigue of CuCrZr alloy during the
aforementioned QT combustion cycle of the engine, numerical
analyses were conducted by JAXAs Engineering Digital Innovation
(JEDI) center [6]: they simulated the interaction between thermo-
fluid behavior and structural responses through developing a new
analysis procedure, that is high-fidelity multi-physics coupled sim-
ulation to which three-dimensional finite element method (3D-
FEM) was applied. Fig. 2(a) shows a calculated temperaturetime
profile at the region subjected to the most severe condition: the
inner surface at the center of the groove wall at the nozzle throat
of the engine. At this position, the temperature rapidly increases
immediately after ignition (from A to B), followed by a slight over-
shoot (from B to C). Afterwards, the temperature remains at
approximately 753 K for 265 s during steady-state combustion
(from C to D), and finally rapidly decreases to 73 K as soon as com-
bustion ends (from D to E). The strain and stress histories are
shown in Fig. 2(b). The strain reaches its minimum value ( 2.2%)
at the highest temperature (B); with the subsequent temperature
overshoot, the wall is elongated above the tensile yield (C). After-
wards, the strain gradually increases under an almost constant
stress of 150 MPa during steady-state combustion (from C to D)
and finally reaches its maximum value (+1.0%) at approximately

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2016.02.025
0142-1123/Crown Copyright 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
352 M. Deguchi et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 87 (2016) 351358
Fig. 1. Image of a liquid rocket engine and schematic of its combustion chamber
wall.
Fig. 2. Results of 3D-FEM simulation for one engine-combustion cycle: (a)
temperaturetime profile and (b) strain/stresstime profiles.
the lowest temperature (E). The shut-down behavior (after D) is
not well-estimated in this calculation. These analyses clearly reveal
that the CuCrZr alloy is subjected not only to severe fatigue
deformation (from A to B and from D to E) but also to tensile defor-
mation with a very low strain rate (from C to D) in one engine com-
bustion cycle. The former strain amplitude is 3%, which is
substantially larger than the strain range observed in typical
creepfatigue phenomena in power plants, etc. [3]. The latter is
metallurgically equivalent to stress-holding creep deformation.
In general, such thermal fatigue has been examined by low-
cycle fatigue experiments under constant temperature, into which
a strain-holding process is introduced [7]. Creepfatigue life on the
basis of stress-holding-type creepfatigue data had been assessed
[5]. Later, the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) con-
structed a material database of the creepfatigue properties of the
CuCrZr alloy [8]. Strain holding, however, produces stress relax-
ation and does not correctly simulate the combustion cycle shown
in Fig. 2. In order to exactly replicate the thermal fatigue of CuCr
Zr alloy in one combustion cycle, our research group conducted
creepfatigue tests in which a stress-holding process was intro-
duced [9]. The results indicated that the introduction of the
stress-holding process resulted in a large decrease in lifetime to
less than 20 cycles; by contrast, the NIMS database [8] reports a
lifetime of larger than 60 cycles under similar conditions. This dra-
matic decrease in lifetime suggests that characteristic damage
propagation occurs via the stress-holding process during low-
cycle creepfatigue.
Our group conducted microstructural observations of the frac-
tured specimens used in the creepfatigue tests and compared
their microstructures to those of samples used in simple creep
tests and simple fatigue tests [10]. The results imply that creep
voids nucleated at grain boundaries and fatigue cracks from the
surface of the specimen connect with each other, resulting in final
fracture. However, the damage propagation process should be
traced following the progress in the creepfatigue cycles.
In this study, after reviewing the results of our own mechanical
creepfatigue, simple creep, and simple fatigue tests [10], we used
a scanning electron microscope to observe the microstructures of
CuCrZr alloy specimens subjected to interrupted creepfatigue
tests. These observations enabled us to elucidate the process and
mechanism of damage propagation in the alloy.
2. Experimental
2.1. Material
The alloy used in this study had a nominal chemical composi-
tion of Cu0.7Cr0.09Zr (mass%); it is the identical material as that
used in Ref. [10], and is the nominally same but a different-rod
material than that used in Ref. [9]. The alloy was received as a
bar that was fabricated through vacuum induction melting, hot
forging, solution treatment, and aging under appropriate condi-
tions, which are summarized in the NIMS data sheet [8].
2.2. Mechanical tests
All of the mechanical tests were conducted using a hydraulic-
servo fatigue testing machine (EFH-10-5-40, Saginomiya, Tokyo,
Japan). The specimen had a gauge length of 13 mm, a diameter of
6 mm, and a sufficiently large shoulder radius of 20 mm for high-
temperature low-cycle fatigue tests according to the applicable
JIS standard [11]. The specimen was heated at a high-frequency
induction heating facility (GVL-153BC, Fuji Electronic Industrial,
Saitama, Japan). An R-type thermocouple welded onto the shoulder
of the specimen was used for controlling and measuring the spec-
imen temperature. The strain in the gauge length was measured
using a high-temperature extensometer (No. 2632-055, Instron,
Norwood, United States). The aforementioned apparatus were con-
tained in a vacuum chamber.
Before conducting the tests, the chamber was evacuated to a
pressure below 10 Pa; the specimen was then heated to 753 K at
a rate of 100 K min 1 and maintained at 753 K for 30 min to reach
temperature equilibrium.
According to the results of the 3D-FEM analyses shown in Fig. 2
(b), the conditions of the mechanical tests were determined as
summarized in Table 1. The engine cycle condition was replaced
with creepfatigue consisting of strain-controlled fatigue (com-
pressed and tensile strains of 2.2% and 1.0%, respectively, with
a strain rate of 1.0  10 3 s 1) and a stress-holding creep in ten-
sion (stress of 150 MPa for holding time of 270 s) under a constant
 M. Deguchi et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 87 (2016) 351358
Table 1
Conditions used in the three types of executed mechanical tests.
Test mode Temperature (K) Creep
Stress hold period
Creep 753 150 MPa
Fatigue 753
Creepfatigue 753 150 MPa for 270 s
Fig. 3. Results of the creepfatigue, simple creep, and simple fatigue tests: (a) stress history and (b) strain history of the creepfatigue test, (c) strain history of the simple
creep test, and (d) stress history of the simple fatigue test.
temperature equal to that during the steady-state combustion
(753 K). To examine the effect of superposition of creep and fati-
gue, simple tensile creep and simple fatigue tests were conducted
under the same conditions of the stress-holding process and the
fatigue process of the creepfatigue test, respectively.
Several creepfatigue tests were interrupted at the end of the
cycles of N/Nf = 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8, where N is the cycle number
and Nf is that at fracture.
2.3. Microstructural observation
The fracture surfaces of the specimens after the mechanical
tests were observed by a field-emission scanning electron micro-
scopy (FE-SEM) (JSM-7100F, JEOL, Tokyo, Japan). The cross-
sections along the loading axis of the central part of the interrupted
and fractured specimens were then observed also by an FE-SEM.
The cross-sections were mechanically polished and buff-finished
using a mixture of 28 mass% ammonia water and colloidal silica
with a particle size of 0.04 lm. Finally, these specimens were
etched for 1015 s in an ethanol solution of 1 mass% FeCl3.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Creepfatigue test
High temperature tensile tests revealed that the alloy has 0.2%
proof stress of 180 MPa and tensile strength of 201 MPa at 753 K
under vacuum with strain rate of 1.0  10 4 s 1. Fig. 3 shows the
results of the creepfatigue, simple creep, and simple fatigue tests,
353
Fatigue
1
Compression (%) Tension (%) Strain rate (s )
3
2.2 +1.0 1.0  10
3
2.2 +1.0 1.0  10
where (a) and (b) show the stress and strain histories, respectively,
of the creepfatigue test, (c) shows the strain history of the simple
creep test, and (d) shows the stress history of the simple fatigue
test. The total holding time until rupture in the creepfatigue test
was 4900 s (270 s  18 cycles + 40 s), whereas the rupture life in
the simple creep test was approximately 58,000 s. The rupture life
in the creepfatigue mode was shorter than one-tenth of that in
the simple creep mode. The rupture life in the creepfatigue test
(19 cycles) was shorter than one-half of that in the simple fatigue
test (42 cycles).1
These rupture lives indicate that the creepfatigue life is much
shorter than that predicted by the linear cumulative damage rule:
material fractures when the summation of the creep damage (Uc)
and fatigue damage (Uf) reaches unity (Uc + Uf = 1) [12]. Here, Uc
and Uf are defined as Uc = tcf/tsc and Uf = Ncf/Nsf, respectively,
where tcf and tsc are rupture life (time) in the creepfatigue and
simple creep tests, respectively, and Ncf and Nsf are rupture life
(cycle) in the creepfatigue and simple fatigue, respectively. The
present results indicate that fracture in the creepfatigue test
occurred with Uc = 0.08 and Uf = 0.45, i.e., Uc + Uf = 0.53. The life
was only approximately one-half of the value expected one on
the basis of the rule.
1
Another creep-fatigue test under the same condition showed the rupture life of
21 cycles and total holding time until rupture of 5400 s (270 s  20 cycles + 0 s). In
our groups earlier work [9], where the nominally same but a different-rod material
than that used in this study was used, the rupture life in creepfatigue was 20 cycles
and total holding time until rupture of 5175 s (270 s  19 cycles + 45 s) and the
rupture life in simple creep was 58,000 s, respectively, both of which are similar to
the results in this study.
354 M. Deguchi et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 87 (2016) 351358

Fig. 3(a) and (b) shows that the specimen fractured during the
stress-holding period (creep deformation) in the 19th cycle. The
magnitude of the maximum and minimum stresses in a cycle,
which is necessary for fatigue deformation gradually decreased.
The strain induced during creep deformation gradually increased
with increasing cycle number until the 14th cycle and then rapidly
increased after the 15th cycle until fracture. To show these phe-
nomena more visibly, Fig. 4 shows the stress/straintime profiles
and the stressstrain hysteresis loops of the 2nd and 17th cycles,
which correspond to N/Nf of 0.1 and 0.9, respectively. The maxi-
mum stresses necessary for fatigue deformation in both compres-
sive and tensile deformation at the 17th cycle ( 187 MPa and
168 MPa) were lower than those at the 2nd cycle ( 203 MPa and
192 MPa). The creep strain in the 17th cycle (e = 1.2%) was much
larger than that in the 2nd cycle (e = 0.33%). These results indicate
the damage accumulated from the 2nd until the 17th cycle.
Fig. 5(a) shows the strain histories of the stress-holding region
extracted from the strain histories shown in Fig. 3(b) for the 1st,
7th, 11th, 15th, 17th, and 18th cycles. Transient creep was evident
in every cycle and yielded more than half of the total creep strain
except the last two cycles. Creep strain increased with increasing
cycle number in both the transient and steady-state regions. Fig. 5. Results of the creepfatigue test: (a) creep strain histories in the 1st, 7th,
Fig. 5(b) shows the change in the total creep strain in a cycle. These 11th, 15th, 17th, and 18th cycles and (b) change in the total creep strain in a cycle.
results indicate that the creep strain gradually increased until the
15th cycle and then drastically increased immediately after the
15th cycle, corresponding to an N/Nf of 0.8. Therefore, we focused
our subsequent microstructural observations of the damage
around the 15th cycle.

3.2. Comparison with simple creep test and simple fatigue test

Fig. 6(a) shows a comparison between the creep curve of the

simple creep test and the accumulative creep curve of the creep
fatigue test; the latter represents stacks of the extracted creep
curve from every cycle. Instead of a large difference in rupture life,
the rupture strains were in a similar order, i.e., 13% and 24% in the
creepfatigue and simple creep tests, respectively. This rapid
accumulation of creep strain in the creepfatigue test is mainly
attributed to transient creep, and is considered as the origin of
small rupture life in the creepfatigue test.

Fig. 6. (a) Comparison between the accumulative creep curve of the creepfatigue
test and the creep curve of the simple creep test; (b) comparison between the
maximum and minimum stresses in each cycle in the creepfatigue test and the
simple fatigue test.

Fig. 6(b) shows the maximum and minimum stresses in each

Fig. 4. Comparison between the 2nd and 17th cycles of the creepfatigue test: (a)
stress/straintime profiles and (b) stressstrain hysteresis loop.
cycle in the creepfatigue and simple fatigue tests. The initial
behavior until the 15th cycle is the same as each other in the
two tests, where the maximum and minimum stresses gradually
decrease with increasing cycle number. In the creepfatigue test,
however, a substantial decrease in the maximum stress is observed
immediately after the 15th cycle, whereas no such decrease is
observed in the simple fatigue test. Immediately after this decrease
in the maximum stress, the specimen in the creepfatigue test
fractured. Notably, not only this precipitous decrease in the maxi-
mum tensile stresses but also a substantial increase in creep strain
(Fig. 5(b)) occurred after the 15th cycle in the creepfatigue test.
We therefore consider that substantial damage has been accumu-
lated until the 15th cycle.
 M. Deguchi et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 87 (2016) 351358 355

3.3. Microstructural observations of fracture surfaces
Fig. 7(a) shows the fracture surface of the specimen subjected to
the creepfatigue test, and Fig. 7(b)(e) is magnified images corre-
sponding to the rectangles denoted by B, C, D, and E in Fig. 7(a),
respectively. Fig. 7(b)(d) clearly shows intergranular cracks being
predominant without striations from crack initiation at the surface
until the cracks reach the specimen center. Thus, under this condi-
tion, the cracks not only initiated but also propagated in the inter-
granular mode. Fig. 7(e) shows the final ductile-fracture surface in
the vicinity of the specimen center; this surface was formed by
tension immediately before fracture. This observation is quite sim-
ilar to those reported by our group in the previous works [9,10].
Fig. 8(a) and (b) shows the fracture surfaces of the specimens
subjected to the simple creep and simple fatigue tests, respectively.
Fig. 8(c) and (e) is magnified images corresponding to the rectan-
gles denoted by C and E in Fig. 8(a), respectively, and Fig. 8
(d) and (f) is those denoted by D and F in Fig. 8(b), respectively.
Fig. 8(c) and (d) shows that the cracks in both the simple creep
and simple fatigue tests initiated from the specimen surface as
pure intergranular cracks without striations. Fig. 8(e) shows that,
in the vicinity of the specimen center in the simple creep test, only
a dimple pattern is identified; no intergranular cracks are
observed. In contrast, Fig. 8(f) shows that there are only intergran-
ular cracks but no dimple pattern in the vicinity of the specimen
center in the simple fatigue test.

Fig. 7. SEM micrographs of the specimen fractured in the creepfatigue test: (a) the entire fracture surface; (be) high-magnification micrographs corresponding to the
rectangles denoted by BE in (a), respectively.

Fig. 8. SEM micrographs of the fractured specimens (a) in the simple creep test and (b) in the simple fatigue test; (c, e) high-magnification micrographs corresponding to the
rectangles denoted by C and E in (a), respectively; (d, f) high-magnification micrographs corresponding to the rectangles denoted by D and F in (a), respectively.
356 M. Deguchi et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 87 (2016) 351358

Fatigue crack initiation in wavy slip materials and planar slip
materials differs; in the former case, transgranular cracking due to
persistent slip bands is known to occur [13,14]. Although CuCr
Zr alloy is classified as a planar-slip material [2], the occurrence of
transgranular or intergranular cracking depends on the loading fre-
quency, atmosphere, and temperature [1517]. For instance, at
lower frequencies and higher temperatures, intergranular cracking
tends to occur. It is clear that CuCrZr alloy exhibited intergranular
cracking in the present condition. Although studies on the transition
from transgranular to intergranular cracking in CuCrZr alloy have
not been reported, the cracking mode might change under different
conditions corresponding to a different engine design.
3.4. Microstructural observations of cross-sections
Notably, both the grain size and the amount of twins were con-
firmed to be approximately similar between the as-received and
tested specimens through optical micrography.
The cross-sections of the fractured and interrupted specimens
in the creepfatigue tests were observed by an FE-SEM (Figs. 9
and 10), where the tests were interrupted at the end of the 7th,
11th, and 15th cycles, corresponding to N/Nf of 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8,
respectively. The specimen subjected to 15 cycles was chosen for
observation because significant changes in creep strain and maxi-
mum stress were conspicuous in Figs. 5 and 6(b), respectively.
Fig. 9(a)(d) shows the history of creep-void growth in
sequence. Numerous-voids much smaller than 1 lm were
observed on grain boundaries at the 7th cycle (a); these voids grew
to 35 lm in length at the 11th cycle (b) and to 1015 lm at the
15th cycle (c). Finally, some elongated voids of 30 lm were
observed in the fractured specimen (d). Dose and Cadek also
reported the formation of numerous grain-boundary voids during
creep deformation [18]. Changes in the length of the creep void
av and accumulative creep strain eCREEP are plotted in Fig. 9(e),
which indicates that creep-void growth strongly influenced the
increase in accumulative creep strain; both gradually increased
until fracture. These results indicate that a substantial change in
creep-void size was not observed even at N/Nf  0.8.
Fig. 10(a)(c) shows the history of fatigue-crack propagation in
sequence, where the cracks selected for representation here were
the longest ones in each specimen. Fig. 10(d) shows the vertical
cross-section of the fractured specimen. The crack depths in
specimens with N/Nf of 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 were 40 lm, 75 lm,
and 280 lm, respectively; however, the crack depth in the case of
N/Nf = 1.0 reached as large as a few millimeters because the
specimen diameter was 6 mm. That is, the crack depth gradually
increased in earlier cycles and then drastically increased

Fig. 9. (ad) SEM micrographs of the cross-sections of the interrupted specimens in the creepfatigue tests: (a) the 7th cycle, (b) 11th cycle, (c) 15th cycle, (d) fractured
specimen. (e) Plot of creep strain and creep-void size changes with increasing cycle number.
 M. Deguchi et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 87 (2016) 351358 357

Fig. 10. (ad) SEM micrographs of the cross-sections of the interrupted specimens in the creepfatigue tests: (a) the 7th cycle, (b) 11th cycle, (c) 15th cycle, (d) fractured
specimen. (e) Change in crack depth and the maximum stress normalized by that in the 1st cycle.

immediately before fracture. The changes in crack depth c and the

maximum stress normalized by that in the 1st cycle RrMAX are plot-
ted in Fig. 10(e). This plot indicates that the propagating crack depth
attributed to the maximum stress changes until the 15th cycle, and
then, crack depth increases drastically after the 15th cycle. On the
other hand, Fig. 10(d) shows numerous elongated creep voids near
the fracture surface similarly to aforementioned Fig. 9(d).
Fig. 11 presents a magnified image of the crack tip in Fig. 10(c);
this high-magnification SEM image shows the fatigue crack tip of
the creepfatigue-tested specimen interrupted at the 15th cycle.
As evident in Fig. 10(a)(b), the crack tips of the specimens sub-
jected to 7 or 11 cycles are narrow and sharp, whereas that of the
specimen subjected to 15 cycles exhibits a shape with an expanded
width and an elliptic tip. The crack tip is considered to connect with Fig. 11. High-magnification SEM micrograph of the fatigue crack tip in the creep
an elongated creep void at approximately the 15th cycle because fatigue-tested specimens interrupted at the 15th cycle. Note that the shape of the
both the size and morphology of this crack tip are similar to those crack tips at the 15th cycle is different from that at previous cycles; Fig. 10(a and b)
of the creep void shown in Fig. 9(c). The repetition of this connec- shows sharp crack tips.

tion between a fatigue crack and elongated creep voids, both of

which are formed at grain boundaries, begins to occur at approxi- 3.5. Damage propagation mechanism
mately the 15th cycle and drastically accelerates the failure of the
specimen in the creepfatigue test compared to the failures of the Nucleation and growth of creep voids on grain boundaries
simple-creep and the simple-fatigue-test specimens. occurred alone in the simple creep test; by contrast, only propaga-
358 M. Deguchi et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 87 (2016) 351358
Fig. 12. Schematic of the proposed damage propagation process under the creepfatigue conditions: (a) earlier term (N/Nf = 0.4), (b) intermediate term (N/Nf = 0.6), and (c)
later term (N/Nf = 0.8).
tion of fatigue cracks along grain boundaries occurred in the simple
fatigue test. However, both nucleation and growth of creep voids
and propagation of fatigue cracks occurred during the creepfatigue
tests. This result is consistent with previously published results for
stainless steel and nickel-based alloys [12,15,19], except that the
fatigue cracks observed in the present study were classified as pure
intergranular cracks.
Fig. 12 shows schematics of the proposed damage propagation
process in the creepfatigue tests of CuCrZr alloy. As shown in
Fig. 12(a), numerous minute voids nucleated on grain boundaries
and fatigue cracks began to propagate from the surface of the spec-
imen intergranularly during the early term of the test (N/Nf = 0.4,
the 7th cycle). In Fig. 12(b), the small voids grew larger and fatigue
cracks simultaneously continued to propagate along grain bound-
aries during the intermediate term (N/Nf = 0.6, the 11th cycle).
Fig. 12(c) shows a tip of the fatigue crack propagating inside the
specimen connected with grown voids during the latter term (N/
Nf = 0.8, the 15th cycle). The crack depth reached several millimeters
in a few cycles after the 15th cycle because the fatigue crack tip
began to connect with grown creep voids. These connections
between creep voids and fatigue crack tips arose extensively inside
the specimen subjected to more than 15 cycles; these connections
accelerated damage propagation during creepfatigue of the Cu
CrZr alloy.
Hales [19] proposed four failure mechanisms depending on the
total strain amplitude and the number of cycles. In the case of Cu
CrZr alloy at the temperature and stress amplitude conditions
classified as Case 2, fatigue crack damage initiates and then creep
cavity damage initiates after the critical amount of accumulative
creep strain is achieved.
4. Conclusions
In this study, low-cycle creepfatigue tests with a stress-
holding process were conducted at 753 K for Cu0.7Cr0.09Zr
(mass%) alloy to simulate a combustion cycle of a liquid rocket
engine; simple creep and simple fatigue tests were also conducted
under the corresponding conditions. The total stress-holding time
until rupture in the creepfatigue test was 4900 s, which was
shorter than one-tenth the rupture life in the simple creep test of
58,000 s. The rupture life of the specimen in the creepfatigue test
(19 cycles) is shorter than one-half of that in the simple fatigue test
(42 cycles). These results indicate that the creepfatigue life cannot
be predicted by the conventional linear cumulative-damage rule.
The surfaces of the fractured specimens in the creepfatigue,
simple creep, and simple fatigue tests were observed by SEM.
The cross-sections of the fractured and interrupted specimens of
creepfatigue tests were also observed by SEM. The observations
showed that creep voids were generated on grain boundaries and
then grew, and that fatigue crack simultaneously propagated from
the specimen surfaces along grain boundaries. In addition, magni-
fied SEM image clearly showed that the fatigue crack tip began to
connect with grown creep voids in the later term of the cycles.
These results suggest that the repetition of this connection
between fatigue cracks and creep voids accelerates cracks to prop-
agate rapidly inside the specimen, which were attributed to the
short lifetime in creepfatigue of the CuCrZr alloy.
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by Grants-in-Aids for Scientific
Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
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