Improvement of Fatigue Crack Growth Resistance by Serrated Grain Boundary at High Temperature

Effects of serrated grain boundaries on the improvement of fatigue-crack growth resistance were investigated using austenitic 21Cr-4Ni-9Mn heat-resisting steel at 973K in air. Grain boundaries were serrated by grain-boundary reaction precipitates. The crack-growth rates were considerably decreased in the specimens with the serrated grain boundaries. The fatigue cracks were largely deflected by the serrated grain boundaries, and brittle intergranular fracture was retarded. The improvement of the crack-growth resistance was obtained especially under the conditions of low crack-growth rates of less than 30 μm/cycle. The widths and the heights of the deflected portions of the cracks were in the range from about a few μm to 30 μm.