International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154

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International Journal of Fatigue

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

Life prediction and damage analysis of creep-fatigue combined with

high-low cycle loading by using a crystal plasticity-based approach
Kai-Shang Li a, Run-Zi Wang a, Le Xu b, Cheng-Cheng Zhang c, Xian-Xi Xia d, Min-Jin Tang d,
Guo-Dong Zhang d, Xian-Cheng Zhang a, *, Shan-Tung Tu a
a
Key Laboratory of Pressure Systems and Safety, Ministry of Education, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China
b
Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Nojihigashi, Kusatsu-shi, Shiga 525-8577, Japan
c
AECC Commercial Aircraft Engine Co. LTD, Shanghai Engineering Research Center for Commercial Aircraft Engine, Shanghai 201108, PR China
d
Suzhou Nuclear Power Research Institute, Suzhou 215004, PR China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Many high-temperature rotating components are always subjected to complex loading waveforms, arising the
Crystal plasticity concerns for multi-damage driving crack initiation. In this paper, a series of strain-controlled low cycle fatigue
Creep-fatigue combined with high-low cycle (LCF) and creep-fatigue interaction (CFI) tests as well as the novel creep-fatigue combined with high-low cycle
loading
(CF-HL) tests were performed in a nickel-based superalloy at 650 ℃. Then, post-test microstructure observations
Life prediction
Damage analysis
were carried out to reveal the damage mechanisms under the multi-damaged CF-HL loading based on the EBSD-
TEM combinative characterizations. In this aspect, the single-slip-dominated deformation mechanism under CFI
loadings transformed to double-slip-dominated one under CF-HL loading was revealed. Computationally, a nu­
merical procedure with a combination of crystal plasticity theory and finite element implementation was con­
structed for predicting the CF-HL crack initiation life and quantifying the crack initiation mechanisms. With the
help of the developed fatigue and creep indicator parameters represented by accumulated energy dissipation,
good agreements between experimental data and simulated results were achieved within a scatter band of ± 2 on
life prediction. In addition, the simulation results indicate that the combined effects of grain orientation and
multiple slip system activation showed great influence on the CF-HL crack initiation.

1. Introduction
Investigations pertaining to the fatigue behavior of structural mate­
rials are dedicated mostly to single-factor-driving low cycle fatigue
(LCF) and high cycle fatigue (HCF), in spite of the fact that engineering
components experience varying load histories throughout their service
life. Especially, in energy conversion systems, the turbines which are
deemed to be critical components are prone to damage induced by LCF
as a result of startups, shutdowns and transients [1,2] as well as HCF
because of vibrations within the assembling clearances [3,4]. The
damage processes resulting from LCF superimposed by HCF would lead
to severe HCF-LCF varying loading, arising a significant reduction in
service life of such components. This has aroused thorough in­
vestigations into the potentially deleterious influence on HCF-LCF in­
teractions in recent years. On the one hand, the interest about HCF-LCF
interactions was concentrated on the development of damage
accumulation models and their extended ones based on Miner’s rule for
the necessity of accurate life estimation [5–7]. On the other hand, more
endeavors also put towards the exploration of microstructural compet­
itive behavior from crack initiation stages to crack propagation paths to
clarify the damage mechanism [8]. However, little attention is paid to
the HCF-LCF combined with creep damage at high temperatures. As
presented in Fig. 1, different damage modes are mapped as a function of
the loading waveforms and temperatures based on the work by Sarkar
et al. [9]. X axis represents HCF cycles in each block, and Y axis repre­
sents different temperatures in Fig. 1, where the normalized values are
employed to be suitable for different structural materials. LCF, HCF and
HCF-LCF are major damage contributors to fatigue failure at lower
temperatures. It is important to note that the creep damage plays a key
role in dictating failure at elevated temperatures, resulting in more
detrimental life than pure LCF life [10–12]. At present, a great quantity
of research has focused on the investigation of dual-factor-driving creep-
fatigue interaction (CFI) behavior including deformation characteristics

* Corresponding author at: Key Laboratory of Pressure Systems and Safety, Ministry of Education, School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, East China
University of Science and Technology, Meilong Road 130, Xuhui District, Shanghai 200237, PR China.
E-mail address: xczhang@ecust.edu.cn (X.-C. Zhang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2022.107154
Received 26 March 2022; Received in revised form 11 May 2022; Accepted 13 July 2022
Available online 16 July 2022
0142-1123/© 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
K.-S. Li et al. International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154

Nomenclature WF Fatigue indicator parameters

WC,crit Critical values of creep indicator parameters
F Total deformation gradient WF,crit Critical values of fatigue indicator parameters
Fe Elastic part of deformation gradient WC,cyc A stabilized cyclic creep indicator parameter
Fp Plastic part of deformation gradient WF,cyc A stabilized cyclic fatigue indicator parameter
L Total velocity gradient *
WC,crit ,M Material parameters related to critical creep indicator
Le Elastic part of velocity gradient parameter
Lp Plastic part of velocity gradient
dLCF Low cycle fatigue damage at jth cycle
(j)
γ̇α Plastic slip rate on the αth slip system
dHCF High cycle fatigue damage at jth cycle
(j)
sα Slip direction vector on the αth slip system
mα Slip normal plane vector on the αth slip system dC
(j)
Creep damage at jth cycle
τα Resolved shear stress on the αth slip system NX Crack initiation life under different loading conditions
Bα Back stress on the αth slip system PLCF Relative percentage of low fatigue cycle damage
Sα Slip resistance on the αth slip system PHCF Relative percentage of high fatigue cycle damage
k Boltzmann constant PC Relative percentage of creep cycle damage
θ Absolute temperature LCF Low cycle fatigue
γ̇0 Reference plastic strain rate HCF High cycle fatigue
F0 Total free energy CFI Creep-fatigue interaction
τ0 Lattice friction stress at the current temperature CF-HL Creep-fatigue combined with high-low cycle
p, q Exponential constants CPFE Crystal plasticity finite element
T∗ Second Piola-Kirchoff stress EBSD Electron backscatter diffraction
Ee Elastic Green tensor TEM Transmission electron microscopy
ζ Tensor regarding elastic stiffness OM Optical microscope
hB Hardening constant SEM Scanning electron microscopy
rD Dynamic recovery parameter CDM Continuum damage mechanics
hαβ Hardening matrix FIP Fatigue indicator parameter
S0 Initial slip resistance CIP Creep indicator parameter
Ssat Saturated slip resistance GB Grain boundary
hs Material constant IPF Inverse pole figure
w Latent hardening ratio KAM Kernel average misorientation
δαβ Kronecker delta GND Geometrically necessary dislocations
rS static recovery parameter LAGB Low-angle grain boundaries
C11, C12, C44 Elastic constants HAGB High-angle grain boundary
Rε Strain ratio CSLB Coincidence site lattice boundary
ε̇ Loading strain rate TB Twin boundary
ΔεL Total strain ranges ODF Orientation distribution function
th Hold time RVE Representative volume element
ΔεH High cycle fatigue strain ranges PBC Periodic boundary condition
f Loading frequency RVE Representative volume element
σsim Predicted stress LDS Linear damage summation
σexp Experimental stress AR As-received
W Accumulated energy dissipation SB Slip band
WC Creep indicator parameters

[13,14], damage mechanism [15] and life prediction [16,17]. Such

Fig. 1. Map delineating different damage modes as a function of normalized
HCF cycles in each block and normalized temperature.
loading conditions may bring non-conservative risks for life design in
many high-temperature rotating components due to the successive vi­
brations induced during steady state operation. Therefore, multi-
damage interactions under the creep-fatigue combined with high-low
cyclic loading, which is abbreviated as CF-HL in this work (see in
Fig. 1), is an important essential issue to be studied systematically from
deformation mechanism to life assessment.
The developments of post-test microstructure characterizations
provide the awareness in the importance of multi-damage interactions.
In the past researches [18,19], multi-damage mechanisms have been
discussed with the help of the qualitative optical microscope (OM),
scanning electron microscope (SEM) and semi-quantitative electron
back scattered diffraction (EBSD). Sarkar et al. [18] investigated the
failure mechanisms under CF-HL loading in a type 316LN stainless steel.
A synergistic interaction was shown that HCF cycles would act as a
catalyst by joining LCF-induced transgranular cracks and creep-caused
intergranular cracks, and then facilitating the crack propagation to
final failure. While for a nickel-based superalloy under CF-HL loading

2
K.-S. Li et al.
[19], a competitive cracking behavior was discovered that the crack
initiation site varied following the order of slip planes, pores, carbide
and oxide, and the initiation location migrated from the matrix to sur­
face with the increase of HCF cycles. However, the qualitative or semi-
quantitative analyses relied solely on experimental characterizations
may not be enough to reveal essence of the CF-HL damage evolutions.
The developments of numerical theories imbedding in finite element
implementations can improve the understanding of the multi-damage
interaction. Zhou et al. [20] developed a power-law model based on
the combination of crystallographic theory and elastic analysis to
investigate fatigue behavior for nickel-based single crystal blade, where
the complicated HCF-LCF deformation mechanism was well revealed.
Gao et al. [21] used a substructure-based kriging surrogate model to
carry out fatigue assessment for gas turbine blades under the HCF-LCF
loading by coupling probabilistic approach and finite element theory.
Some attempts of crack growth constitutive models were also made in
exploring the effects of HCF cycles on LCF/CFI crack growth rates [22].
However, the common limitation of the above-mentioned finite element
methods based on continuum damage mechanics (CDM) is that the
multi-damage mechanisms cannot be quantitatively reflected at grain-
level.
As compared to CDM, crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE) method
presents the main potential advantage to take into account the evolution
of microscopic fields and give an insight into damage mechanism at the
grain-level. With the development of computational technology, CPFE
methods with elaborated microstructure-based descriptions have been
popularized from simple tensile and fatigue behaviors to complex
loading spectrums. It must be mentioned in most studies about CPFE
that fatigue indicator parameters (FIPs) play a pivotal role in recog­
nizing crack initiation mechanism and then predicting the correspond­
ing life. The concept of FIP involved cyclic plastic strain or other related
parameters in polycrystal materials was proposed firstly by the McDo­
well group [23,24]. Subsequently, a systematical investigation for hi­
erarchical fatigue of microstructures based on these FIPs was elaborated
by McDowell [25]. The increasing attentions on the modification of FIPs
have been conducted to improve the application for more complicated
loading conditions. In particular, the micro-damage mechanisms under
the non-proportional loading [26] and thermo-mechanical fatigue
loading [27,28] have been thoroughly revealed by using different types
of FIPs assisted with some experimental observations. Mainstream FIPs
mainly involve the accumulated plastic slip [29,30], the Fatemi-Socie
parameter [31,32] and the accumulated energy stored or dissipated
during cyclic deformation [33–35]. As for creep damage induced at
elevated temperatures, few indicator parameters were developed to
quantify creep cracking mechanism and support life prediction methods
in the framework of CPFE. In our recent works [36,37], the concept of
creep indicator parameter (CIP) was proposed to reveal polycrystal
deformation, damage evolution and crack initiation mechanism under
CFI loadings. Based on the above-mentioned studies, most of the re­
searchers devoted themselves to study single-factor driving fatigue
problems and dual-factor driving CFI issues by using FIP and CIP,
whether they are capable of describing multi-factor driving CF-HL
damage still needs further exploration in this work.
The aims of this paper are as follows: (i) Obtain crack initiation life
and microstructure evolutions under different loading waveforms
through the combination of cyclic property tests and post-test observa­
tions; (ii) Implement crystal plasticity theory into finite element model
and predict crack initiation life by using an improved life prediction
method; (iii) Investigate the failure mechanism under different loading
waveforms, in particular under CF-HL, by the combined methods of
simulations and experiments.
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International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154
2. Experimental and numerical methodologies
2.1. Experimental methodologies
2.1.1. Material and heat treatment
The material studied in this work is precipitation-enhanced Inconel
718 superalloy, which can show excellent mechanical properties at
elevated temperatures. The fine microstructure of this material is con­
sisted of the equiaxed γ matrix, the γ′ precipitate with a Ni3(Al, Ti)
compound, the γ′′ precipitate with a Ni3Nb compound, and a small
fraction of δ phase distributed at grain boundaries. In order to obtain
optimized microstructures and mechanical properties, the material was
subjected to standard heat treatment that involved the following steps:
solution annealing treatment at 960 ◦ C for 1 h, first-stage ageing treat­
ment at 720 ◦ C for 8 h followed by furnace cooling at 50 ◦ C/h to 620 ◦ C,
second-stage ageing treatment at 620 ◦ C for 8 h and then air cooling to
room temperature. Finally, all cylindrical specimens with 12 mm gauge
length and 8 mm gauge diameter were fine machined from the above-
mentioned heat-treated material. The machined surface of gauge
length in the cylindrical specimens was polished up using DiaPro Dac
diamond suspension to control the consistent roughness and improve
the surface quality.
2.1.2. Cyclic property tests under three loading waveforms
All the cyclic property tests including LCF, CFI and CF-HL were
carried out on MTS model 370 testing system by using three strain-
controlled loading waveforms, as shown in Fig. 2. All of the tests were
conducted at the elevated temperature of 650 ℃ in air environment with
constant strain ratio, Rε, of − 1 at the strain rate,ε̇, of 0.4 %/s. For LCF
tests, triangular waveform was conducted with the total strain ranges,
ΔεL, of 1.0 %, 1.6 % and 2.0 %. Then, CFI tests was operated under the
trapezoidal waveform with tensile hold time, th, of 60 s and 300 s at ΔεL
of 1.0 %, 1.6 % and 2.0 %. In order to validate the broad predictability in
terms of hold time, a relatively long hold time of 1800 s at ΔεL of 1.6 %
was tested under the trapezoidal waveform. Finally, the novel CF-HL
tests were performed to simulate the vibrations presented during
actual operations, which referred to superimposing n HCF cycles on LCF
at peak tensile strain. In the CF-HL tests, the LCF strain ranges, ΔεL, were
selected to be 1.0 %, 1.6 % and 2.0 %, following by HCF cycles with the
frequency of f = 1 Hz. The HCF strain ranges, ΔεH, were set to be one-
fifth of ΔεL. That is to say, the values of ΔεH were 0.20 %, 0.32 % and
0.40 % corresponding with ΔεL of 1.0 %, 1.6 % and 2.0 %. Accordingly,
the number of HCF within each CF-HL cycle was set to be 60, 300 and
1800 cycles.
2.1.3. Microstructure characterization
Prior to cyclic property tests, a cubic-shaped specimen (4 mm × 4
mm × 4 mm) was extracted from heat treated Inconel 718 superalloy to
examine crystal characteristics and construct a computational micro­
structure model by using EBSD technique. The surface of the cubic-
shaped specimen was mechanically ground to a mirror finish without
machining residual deformation, and then it was electrochemically
polished in a mixture composition of 90 % Ethanol and 10 % Perchloric
acid at − 25 ℃. EBSD patterns were captured by CamScan Apollo 300
scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with Hikari detector. The
EBSD scans were done with a step size of 0.4 μm and the collected data
were analyzed by using Channel 5™ software in Oxford Instruments
system.
The post-test examinations were conducted to investigate the dam­
age mechanism and failure frequency of different types of grain
boundaries through the combination of EBSD and TEM characteriza­
tions. Firstly, the specimens after LCF (ΔεL = 1.6 %), CFI (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th
= 300 s) and CF-HL (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th = 300 s, ΔεH = 0.32 %) tests were
selected and then sectioned along the longitudinal direction (loading
direction), as schematically illustrated in Fig. 2. Secondly, two EBSD
observation positions were respectively selected to be close to and away
K.-S. Li et al. International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154

Fig. 2. The schematic process of cyclic property tests and post-test microstructure observation strategy.

from crack initiation sites for each post-test specimens. The grain and slip resistance, Sα, of the αth slip system is introduced for the
boundary (GB), inverse pole figure (IPF), kernel average misorientation description of γ̇ α [44,45], i.e.,
(KAM) and geometrically necessary dislocations (GND) maps were used [ 〈 〈 α 〉p 〉q ]
F0 |τ − B α | − S α
in the microstructure investigations. In order to ensure precise com­ γ̇ α = γ̇0 exp − 1− sgn(τα − Bα ) (3)
parisons for the global diffraction-based misorientation maps, the
kθ τ0
misorientation angle θ lower than 2◦ were used to identify the GND [38], whereγ̇0 , k and θ are the reference strain rate, the Boltzmann con­
and the threshold θ between low-angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) and stant and the absolute temperature, respectively. F0 is total free energy
high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) was set as 15◦ [39]. In addition, for a dislocation required to overcome the lattice resistance. p and q are
the Σ3 coincidence site lattice boundaries (CSLBs) were distinguished two exponential constants related to material properties. τ0 is the lattice
with misorientation angle equaling to 60◦ ±5◦ , which are mostly referred friction stress at the current temperature, and macauley bracket in­
as annealing twin boundaries (TBs) [40]. It should be noted that the dicates 〈x〉 = x when x⩾0 and 〈x〉 = 0 whenx < 0. The expression of
fitting degree, Σ, between two grains is described by the reciprocal of the resolved shear stress of the αth slip system, τα, can be written as.
ratio of coincidence sites to the total number of sites. Finally, thin slice
with thickness of 0.5 mm was cut from previous longitudinal cross τα = F eT Fe T * : (sα ⊗ mα ) (4)
section for TEM observations, as illustrated in Fig. 2. The thin slice was where T* is the second Piola-Kirchoff stress, and the symbol: repre­
further grounded until the thickness of less than 0.1 mm, following by sents the double contraction of tensors. The linear elastic relation be­
chemically polishing using the twin-jet electro-polisher (TenuPol-5) tween T* with elastic Green tensor, Ee, is given by.
with an appropriate electrolyte at a voltage of 8 V and a current of 10
mA. The distribution of dislocation structures and slip bands under T * = ζ : Ee (5)
different loading conditions were observed via the JEOL-2100 TEM at a where ζ is elastic stiffness tensor. Considering computational con­
voltage of 200 kV. sumption and reducing model parameters, a simplified strategy of slip
resistance is used in this work, where the explicit link between slip
resistance of the αth slip system, Sα and the evolution of dislocation
2.2. Numerical procedures
density is not provided by ignoring strain gradient effect. The initial
value of the slip resistance is S0 and the evolution equation of Sα can be
2.2.1. The formulations of crystal plasticity model
written as.
A crystal plasticity model is employed to account for the local crys­
tallographic response between grains. The total deformation and rota­ ∑N (
Ssat − Sβ
)
(6)
α
tion of the crystal can be expressed by the total deformation gradient, F, Ṡ = hαβ |γ̇β |
β=1
Ssat − S0
F = Fe ⋅Fp (1)
where Ssat is the saturated slip resistance. hαβ is the hardening matrix
e
where F denotes the deformation gradient due to elastic stretching to indicate the cross-hardening behavior between the slip systems α and
and rotation of the crystal lattice, and Fp is the plastic deformation β, which is defined as.
gradient. Following the works of Hill and Rice [41], Asaro and Rice [42], [ ]
and Peirce et al. [43], the plastic rate gradient, Lp, is corresponding to hαβ = hs w + (1 − w)δαβ (7)
the plastic slip rate,γ̇ α , on the αth slip system, which can be expressed as. where hs is the hardening constant, w is the latent hardening ratio,
∑
N and δαβ is the Kronecker delta. The initial value for back stress of the αth
(2) slip system, Bα, is zero. The evolution equation of Bα follows a modified
p
Lp = Ḟ F p− 1 = γ̇α sα ⊗ mα
α=1 Armstrong-Frederick type kinematic hardening rule, where the static
where sα and mα represents the slip direction and slip plane normal of recovery effect is considered to describe the creep behavior [36], i.e.,
the αth slip system, respectively. N is the total amount of slip systems. (r )
(8)
α D α α
The symbol ⊗ represents a dyadic product of tensors. The thermally Ḃ = hB γ̇ α − α
B |γ̇ | + rS Bα
S
activated flow rule regarding resolved shear stress, τα, back stress, Bα,

4
K.-S. Li et al.
where hB is the hardening constant, rD is the dynamic recovery
parameter, and rS is the static recovery parameter.
2.2.2. Crack initiation indicator parameter
In order to investigate the crack initiation behavior, it is useful to
introduce certain indicator parameters that reflect driving forces for
crack initiation. During cyclic loading period, most of metallic materials
undergo irreversible slip resulting in the damage accumulation [46,47].
The cyclic slip irreversibility is the result of reverse dislocation glide that
does not completely reverse forward dislocation glide. In CPFE simula­
tion framework, the cyclic slip is numerically expressed by plastic ve­
locity gradient in the grain-scale. Therefore, the plastic slip and other
corresponding parameters are effective indicators to predict fatigue
initiation life. Subsequently, considering the aspects of plastic work
done by resolved shear stress term, the energy dissipation is considered
to be the driving force for crack initiation in open literatures [48,49],
showing good agreement with the experimental data of crack initiation.
Therefore, the important FIP of energy dissipation is efficient to estimate
the crack initiation life, which can be expressed as.
Fig. 3. RVE modelling process: (a) initial EBSD microstructure showing IPF map; (b) ODF of different subsets; (c) CPFE model indicating spatial distribution of Euler
angle; (d) Periodic boundary conditions applied on the CPFE model.
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International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154
n ∫
∑ τ
W= τα γ̇α dτ (9)
α=1 0
In order to describe creep and fatigue damages simultaneously under
CFI or CF-HL loading conditions, the energy-based indicator parameter
can be decomposed into different parts following our previous work
[36]. The detailed procedures will be given in Section 4.1.1.
2.2.3. Finite element modelling strategies
In order to predict crack initiation life using the microstructure-
based model, a sensitivity study in terms of representative volume
element (RVE) size is implemented. In the RVE model, the orientations
with enough grains should be equally distributed to describe the
isotropic mechanical behavior. Orientation data can be represented
statistically through the orientation distribution function (ODF) [50,51].
Fig. 3 shows the RVE modelling processes. The different sized EBSD
maps, named by subset1, subset2, subset3 and subset4, are given in
Fig. 3a. The corresponding ODF of each subset becomes more uniform as
the scanned area increases, and the maximum value of ODF approaches
K.-S. Li et al. International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154

to zero for the larger scanned sizes of subset3 and subset4 (see in Table 1
Fig. 3b). Considering the computational consumption and accuracy, the Material parameters of CP model for Inconel 718 at the elevated temperature of
RVE modelling strategy of “subset3” is the best solution among them. 650 ℃.
Based on the initial EBSD information of subset3, the RVE model is Parameter Unit Value
created with identical grain geometries and crystal orientations to that Elastic constants C11 GPa 206
of the real microstructure. The EBSD-based modelling approach can C12 GPa 88
provide more accurate prediction results for fatigue crack initiation as C44 GPa 66
compared to the traditional Voronoi Tessellation technique [52]. The Flow parameters γ̇0 s− 1 120
F0 kJ/mol 295
EBSD-based modelling process is listed as follows. Firstly, the EBSD raw
p – 0.96
data with representing crystal orientation and grain morphology are q – 1.12
processed to eliminate the poor-quality pixels. Secondly, the EBSD data τ0 MPa 702
representing the grain morphology are converted to nodes and elements, Hardening parameters hB MPa 850
and the orientation information is written in the form of three Euler rD MPa 8
rS s− 1 − 0.001
angles as material properties in an input file. As shown in Fig. 3c, the Ssat MPa 317
CPFE model is consisted of 15,876 linear hexahedral eight-node (C3D8) S0 MPa 340
elements. Each element with the dimension of 0.4 μm × 0.4 μm × 0.4 μm hS MPa 360
is assigned a specific orientation. Finally, the boundary conditions and w – 1
loading direction configurations are applied to the RVE model to
simulate the cyclic loadings, as shown in Fig. 3d. Here, the periodic
stress is given to investigate the prediction accuracy of CP model as
boundary conditions (PBCs) are exerted on the CPFE model to enforce
follows,
the same response of opposite boundaries, which can reduce the ⃒ ⃒
required number of grains in the CPFE model and provide the accurate ⃒σexp − σ sim ⃒
Error = ⃒⃒ ⃒ (10)
prediction for mechanical behavior [53,54]. Considering the feature of σexp ⃒
typical texture-free microstructure for nickel-based superalloys, the
where σexp and σ sim are the experimental and simulated stress,
PBCs can be used to the CPFE model even though the individual grain is
respectively. The values of σ exp and σ sim are selected when their
not periodic structure. In addition, a displacement loading uy is applied
discrepancy in hysteresis loops or stress relaxation curves are the
to the node located top left corner. In order to suppress the entire rigid
maximum ones at a given strain range. All the maximum errors in hys­
body movement and rotation, the node at the location (0, 0, 0) is con­
teresis hoops are less than 10 % and in the stress relaxation curves are
strained in all directions, and the node located at (0, 0, t) is fixed in both
less than 5 %, as shown in Fig. 4d. Thus, the comparison between
× and y directions, and the node at the location (w, 0, 0) is fixed in y
experimental data and simulated results proves the predictability of the
direction, respectively. It should be mentioned that a two-dimensional
CP model for creep-fatigue deformation behavior. However, the com­
extruded (2D-extruded) geometry of grain microstructure is used in
plex damage mechanism of creep void evolution is not considered in the
this work, which is constructed by extruding one-element thickness in
constitutive model since the focus of this work is to propose an accurate
the third direction from the RVE model. This treatment was proved to be
life prediction model under the novel CF-HL loading.
effective to simulate the mechanical responses under uniaxial loading
conditions [45,52,55]. The 2D-extruded RVE model not only can guar­
antee the accurate results in terms of crack initiation as compared with 3.2. Experimental life distribution
traditional 2D model, but also can save the computational cost by
comparison with the 3D model. In general, the crack initiation life occurs when the length of a
dominant crack initially forms about some ten μm. In the previous works
3. Results [34,58,59], the crack initiation life was directly determined to be the
cycle when the crack was first detected from the replica while it was not
3.1. Calibration and validation of model parameters observed at last replica from the specimens with pre-fabricated defects.
However, for the smooth cylindrical specimens used in this work, the
The model parameters used in crystal plasticity need to be calibrated crack initiation sites were difficultly captured by using current mea­
to match up with the experimental data of Inconel 718. Firstly, the three surement techniques. Therefore, an empirical approach was used to
basic anisotropic elastic constants of C11, C12 and C44 are determined determine the crack initiation life, which indicated the certain cycle
from the first-cycle strain–stress responses during the loading stage. where the maximum load has dropped below 5 % of the stabilized
Then, prior to trial-and-error calibration technique, some parameters loading value in a nickel-based superalloy [60]. Based on this, Fig. 5
containing γ̇0 , F0, and w are directly identified from the literatures about gives the distribution of the crack initiation life under the three loading
nickel-based superalloys [53,56,57]. Considering the unique properties waveforms. A common phenomenon is observed that the introduction of
of Inconel 718, some other material parameters are initially determined tensile hold time reduces the cyclic life by comparing the experimental
in the recommended ranges following the works [36,37]. Finally, results of LCF and CFI tests. Particularly, the cyclic life in CF-HL tests
combined an experimental stress–strain response with trial-and-error (with high cycles imposing into hold period) is lower than that in CFI
technique, these material parameters are accurately identified in the tests (without high cycles) under a fixed ΔεL. It can be attributed to the
re-calibration process. All the CP model parameters are listed in Table 1. fact that both HCF damage and creep damage may be simultaneously
The model parameters are validated on the basis of hysteresis loops induced during the hold time period in CF-HL tests.
and stress relaxation curves for the specimens under LCF (ΔεL = 1.6 %
and 2.0 %) and CFI (ΔεL = 1.6 % and 2.0 %, th = 300 s) loadings. Fig. 4a 3.3. Longitudinal EBSD observation
and 4b present the comparison between the experimental results and the
simulated hysteresis loops in terms of the first cycle without and with the The longitudinal observations of EBSD-based maps provide visual
hold time of 300 s, respectively. A good match is achieved between evidences in the effects of loading waveforms on damage modes. The IPF
experimental and simulated results. The experimental and simulated maps and the corresponding statistical grain size histograms for as-
stress relaxation curves are also compared as presented in Fig. 4c, received (AR) material and post-test specimens under LCF (ΔεL = 1.6
showing a good agreement between experimental and simulated ones. In %), CFI (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th = 300 s) and CF-HL (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th = 300 s,
addition, the maximum error between the experimental and simulated ΔεH = 0.32 %) at the selected regions away from crack initiation sites are

6
K.-S. Li et al.
Fig. 4. Comparison between experimental results and simulated curves: (a) hysteresis loops at first cycle for LCF tests under ΔεL = 1.6 % and 2.0 %; (b) hysteresis
loops at first cycle for CFI tests under ΔεL = 1.6 %, 2.0 % and th = 300 s; (c) stress relaxation curves at first cycle for CFI tests under ΔεL = 1.6 %, 2.0 % and th = 300 s;
(d) the maximum error analysis between the experimental and simulated stress.
Fig. 5. Experimental crack initiation life distributions under three loading
waveforms (LCF, CFI and CF-HL) for Inconel 718 at 650 ℃.
shown in Fig. 6a. The averaged grain sizes under the three loading
waveforms are similar to that under AR state. In addition, the shapes and
distortions of grains remain almost immutable under different loading
waveforms, which can be further proved by GB misorientation angle
distribution, see Fig. 6b. The frequencies of LAGBs in yellow lines,
HAGBs in black lines, and Σ3 CSLBs in red lines are determined in
7
International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154
Fig. 6b. It should be noted that the misorientation below 2◦ , which
equals to GND, is not taken into account in the frequencies of GBs. The
grain boundary diffractions under LCF, CFI and CF-HL loading condi­
tions are similar to that of AR material, where LAGBs, HAGBs, and Σ3
CSLBs account for 5.7 %, 25.3 %, and 33.2 %, respectively. The KAM
distribution maps in Fig. 6c can visually reveal the local deformation
and damage degree for LCF, CFI and CF-HL tests. It is observed that the
high misorientation states locate at the triple junctions of GBs marked by
red dotted circles. The KAM values away from initiation sites under each
loading condition roughly coincide with same distribution and the
averaged KAM values at the same ΔεL seem to be independent of loading
paths under uniaxial states, ranging from 1.43 to 1.58, as seen in Fig. 6c.
However, compared with the averaged KAM value of 0.97 in AR mate­
rial, the post-test specimens with relatively larger values are accompa­
nied by higher cyclic damages. In a summary, the IPF and GB maps
reflect the insignificant transformation in grain morphology and GB
misorientation under the three loading waveforms at the elevated
temperature. The KAM distribution maps indicate the cyclic damages
continuously accumulate in grains and crack incline to initiate at tri­
geminal GBs.
4. Discussions
4.1. Crack initiation life prediction under CF-HL loading waveform
4.1.1. Determination of the critical value of FIP and CIP
Under CFI loading conditions, an extension of the FIP concept is
applied to describe concurrently creep damage and fatigue damage. The
K.-S. Li et al.
Fig. 6. EBSD-based micrographs under different loading conditions of AR, LCF, CFI and CF-HL tests: (a) IPF maps and grain size histograms; (b) GB maps and
misorientation angle histograms; (c) KAM maps and corresponding histograms.
accumulated energy dissipation is decomposed into two parts, one
named as WC to express the degree of creep damage and another named
as WF for fatigue damage. It should be mentioned that the CIP is
extracted from hold-begin to hold-end points and the FIP accumulates
during loading/unloading period. In the traditional LCF and HCF re­
gions, the first purpose for fatigue life prediction is to obtain the critical
value of the accumulated energy dissipation by using a simple linear
method [61]. Fig. 7a gives the evolutions of accumulated energy dissi­
pation under fatigue loadings, WF, named FIP along with the number of
cycles. It should be noted that the points in Fig. 7a are located at the
position of maximum values extracted from the LCF cycles as well as
HCF cycles at the peak strain of CF-HL loading. Similar to the assump­
tion before [29,36,52], the value of WF has a linear relation with respect
to the number of cycles. Therefore, the critical values of accumulated
energy dissipation under fatigue loadings, WF,crit, can be calculated as
follows,
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International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154
WF,crit = NF ⋅WF,cyc (11)
where NF is the number of cycles to fatigue crack initiation, and WF,
cycis a stabilized cyclic FIP at the most dangerous point provided by the
CPFE simulation. In order to verify the loading-condition-independent
feature of WF,crit, seven specimens are simulated by using two
microstructure-based models in this work and previous work [36] to
determine the constant value, as shown in Fig. 7b. It can be seen that
averaged value of WF,crit at different ΔεL fluctuate around the averaged
one of 19679 MJ/m3 (cyan solid line in Fig. 7b) is and the error band
(cyan rectangle in Fig. 7b) with respect to it ranges from − 24.7 % to +
26.4 %, which indicates that the variability of WF,crit lies within an error
band of ± 2.0. Experimentally, the scatter observed in the fatigue
response of a nickel-based superalloy was linked to the variability in the
microstructure [62,63]. Therefore, the variability of WF,crit is regarded
as an acceptable parameter for reflecting damage accommodation
regardless of loading conditions.
K.-S. Li et al. International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154

Fig. 7. The distribution of FIP (a) with the number of cycles and (b) total strain range; the distribution of CIP (c) with the number of cycles and (d) total strain range.

During CFI process, the values of accumulated WC are obtained as

depicted in Fig. 7c, showing that the value of WC linearly increases with
increasing the number of CFI cycles. With the help of linear damage
summation (LDS) rule, it is assumed that the CFI crack initiation life can
be determined when the summation of accumulated creep and fatigue
damages equals to 1. Based on the hypothesis, the critical CIP, WC,crit,
can be calculated as follows,
( )− 1
1 WF,cyc
WC,crit = WC,cyc ⋅ − (12)
NCFI WF,crit

where NCFI is the number of cycles to CFI crack initiation, and WC,cyc
is a stabilized cyclic CIP obtained from the CPFE simulation. In our
previous works [64,65], it was observed that creep damage almost lin­
early increased with a fixed hold time range, and it rapidly decreased
with the increase in total strain range. The reason for this phenomenon
may be related to the evolution of magnitudes of plastic strain range
along with number of cycles. In this work, the variations of WC,crit with
different ΔεL and th are also shown in Fig. 7d. It is obvious that WC,crit is
not constant and decreases rapidly with increasing in ΔεL, exhibiting a
power-law relation between WC,crit and ΔεL. The behavior depicted in
Fig. 7d implies that WC,crit is not a material parameter but depends on Fig. 8. The value of the critical CIP, WC,crit, as function of the value of WC,cyc in
total strain range at a fixed temperature. Furthermore, it is observed that the double-log coordinates under different strain ranges and hold times.
the value of WC,crit presents a double logarithmic relation with that of
WC,cyc, as observed in Fig. 8. If this relation between WC,crit and WC,cyc is
introduced in Eq. (12), the expression relating the CFI crack initiation
life NCFI with WC,cyc turns into a power-law relation as follows,

9
K.-S. Li et al. International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154

( )M
*
WC,crit = NCFI ⋅ WC,cyc (13) from one pure fatigue test, and the values of WC,crit
*
and M are determined
by two creep-fatigue tests. The rest of LCF data, CFI data as well as CF-HL
where the two material parameters of WC,crit
*
and M depend on the data are used to characterize the prediction capabilities of the proposed
stabilized cyclic CIP, WC,cyc, and CFI crack initiation life for two method. It should be noted that the life prediction method accounts for
experimental CFI tests (instead of one). Obviously, WC,crit
*
= WC,crit if M = the energy dissipation in individual grains due to the hard-soft orien­
1 and the non-linear relation is reduced to the linear one similar to Eq. tation combination. The more complex transgranular or intergranular
(11). damage mechanisms will be explored by CPFE simulation in future
work.
4.1.2. Generalized microstructure-based life prediction method
Based on the above analysis, the loading-condition-independent FIP 4.1.3. Life prediction results
and loading-condition-dependent CIP can be obtained from Eqs. (11) The crack initiation life under the three loading waveforms was
and (13). With the help of LDS rule, the CF-HL crack initiation life is predicted on the basis of the the critical FIP and CIP in CPFE simulation.
finally determined when the summation of accumulated LCF damage, The separately calculated LCF damage, HCF damage and creep damage
HCF damage and creep damage equals to 1 at the most dangerous points, are implemented into the numerical procedure to obtain the cyclic life in
which can be expressed as. the framework of LDS. The comparisons between the experimental data
and the predicted life are shown in Fig. 9a, where all data points lie
NX (
∑ )
(j)
dLCF (j)
+ dHCF + dC(j) = 1 (14) within an error band of ± 3.0 and almost 95 % of them lie within ± 2.0
j=1 error band. The good agreement between experiment and simulation
results indicate that the present generalized microstructure-based
where NX is crack initiation life, indicating that X = LCF if d(j)
HCF = 0 method can accurately predict the LCF, CFI and CF-HL lives of Inconel
andd(j)
C = 0, X = CFI ifdHCF = 0, X = CF-HL if the three damages are
(j)
718 at 650 ℃.
considered concurrently.d(j)
LCF , dHCF and dC represent LCF damage, HCF
(j) (j) Furthermore, a triangle interaction diagram is developed by
damage and creep damage at jth cycle, respectively. The three damage considering the relative percentages of respective damage contributions
variables can be defined as. due to LCF, HCF and creep. The percentages of different damages can be
determined by the following equations, i.e.,
(j)
WLCF,cyc
(15a) ∑NX (j)
(j)
dLCF =
j=1 dLCF
WF,crit PLCF = ∑NX (j) ∑NX (j) ∑NX (j) (18a)
j=1 dLCF + j=1 dHCF + j=1 dC
(j)
WHCF,cyc
(j)
dHCF = (15b) ∑NX (j)
WF,crit j=1 dHCF
PHCF = ∑NX (j) ∑ NX (j) ∑ NX (j)
(18b)
[ ]M j=1 dLCF + j=1 dHCF + j=1 dC
(j)
WC,cyc
(15c) ∑NX
(j)
dC = *
(j)
WC,crit j=1 dC
PC = ∑NX (j) ∑NX (j) ∑ NX (j)
(18c)
j=1 dLCF + j=1 dHCF + j=1 dC
where WLCF,cyc
(j)
is the FIP during loading/unloading period at jth cycle
of LCF loading, WHCF,cyc
(j)
is the FIP during HCF period at jth cycle of CF-HL where the term PX (X = LCF, HCF, C) denotes respectively relative
percentage of the total damage for each type. All the CFI and CF-HL
loading, and WC,cyc
is the FIP during hold time period at jth cycle of CFI
(j)
experimental data are plotted in Fig. 9b, where the red circles repre­
loading. The values of them can be calculated as follows, sent CFI tests and the blue stars describe CF-HL tests. Obviously, the CFI
experimental data lie on a coordinate axis to illustrate the LCF and creep
(j)
WLCF,cyc (j)
= WL2,cyc (j)
− WL1,cyc (16a)
damage interaction. As for CF-HL tests, a combined influence of LCF,
HCF and creep can be observed. Interestingly, the percentage of creep
(16b)
(j) (j) (j) (j)
WHCF,cyc = WH2,cyc − WH1,cyc − WC,cyc damage increases with the increase in th for both CFI and CF-HL tests,
while the HCF damage accumulated during CF-HL tests depends on the
(j)
WC,cyc (j)
= WC2,cyc (j)
− WC1,cyc (16c) combination effects of th and ΔεL. The highest percentage of HCF dam­
age occurs in the CF-HL specimen with shorter th of 60 s and lower ΔεL of
where WL1,cyc
(j)
and WL2,cyc
(j)
are the values of FIP at the cycle-begin and
1.0 %, and it decreases with increasing th and ΔεL. The HCF damage
cycle-end points at jth cycle of LCF loading. WH1,cyc
(j)
and WH2,cyc
(j)
are the under CF-HL loading is strongly depend on the HCF cycles, which can be
values of FIP at the HCF cycle-begin and cycle-end points at jth cycle of calculated by the equation ofNHCF = th ⋅f⋅NLCF . In addition, ΔεL is more
CF-HL loading. WC1,cyc
(j)
and WC2,cyc
(j)
are the values of CIP at the hold-begin sensitive factor to crack initiation life compared with th (see in Fig. 7).
and hold-end points at jth cycle of CFI loading. Therefore, the maximum number of HCF cycles under the CF-HL loading
As mentioned in Section 4.1.1, this value of the accumulated FIP and (ΔεL = 1.0 %, th = 60 s) would induce the highest HCF damage.
CIP linearly increased with the increase in the number of cycles. Thus,
the values ofWLCF,cyc , WHCF,cyc and WC,cyc can be replaced by that
(j) (j) (j) 4.2. Crack initiation mechanism under CF-HL loading waveform
ofWLCF,cyc , WHCF,cyc and WC,cyc at a stabilized cycle, and then the CF-HL
4.2.1. Qualitative analysis based on microstructure observation
crack initiation life can be predicted by incorporating Eq. (15) into Eq.
With the aid of EBSD misorientation mapping method, the funda­
(14) i.e.,
mental information of the main-to-failure longitudinal crack is provided
( ( )M )− 1
WLCF,cyc WHCF,cyc WC,cyc to analyze the CFI and CF-HL crack initiation mechanism. The GB and
NX = + + *
(17) GND distribution maps near to crack initiation sites for a selected CFI
WF,crit WF,crit WC,crit
specimen (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th = 300 s) and CF-HL specimen (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th
where the values ofWF,crit , WC,crit
*
and M have been determined in = 300 s, ΔεH = 0.32 %) is shown in Fig. 10. Compared with the GB map
Section 4.1.1, and the values ofWLCF,cyc , WHCF,cyc and WC,cyc can be ob­ under CFI loading (see in Fig. 10a), an apparent increase in LAGBs at the
tained from CPFE simulation. In summary, the value of WF,crit is derived failure area is observed under CF-HL loading with dense yellow lines as
shown in Fig. 10b. This is resulted from multi-factor-driving damage

10
K.-S. Li et al. International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154

Fig. 9. (a) Comparisons between experimental data and predicted crack initiation life using the present method; (b) a triangle plot providing respective damage
contributions due to LCF, HCF and creep.

Fig. 10. EBSD-based micrographs of the main-to-failure crack in the longitudinal cross section: (a) GB distribution map for CFI specimen (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th = 300 s);
(b) GB distribution map for CF-HL specimen (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th = 300 s, ΔεH = 0.32 %); (c) failure frequency of different types of grain boundaries; (d) GND distribution
map for CFI specimen (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th = 300 s); (e) GND distribution map for CF-HL specimen (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th = 300 s, ΔεH = 0.32 %); (f) the selected paths in each
grain of point-to-origin GND density evolution profile.

under the CF-HL loading. Furthermore, the failure frequencies of material are shown in Fig. 10c, where the frequencies of LAGBs, Σ3
different types of GB at the failure grains marked in Fig. 10a and 10b for CSLBs and HAGBs are specified. Compared with the frequencies of GBs
CFI and CF-HL as well as the frequencies in the microstructure of AR in the AR material, the distribution of the HAGBs is more frequent with

11
K.-S. Li et al.
densely distributed LAGBs for CFI and CF-HL, while the frequency of
CSLBs is relatively low. It indicates that GBs with random misorientation
are inclined to initiate fatigue crack compared with Σ3 CSLBs.
The EBSD-based GND distribution can reflect more fundamental in­
formation on deformation mechanism compared with the GB distribu­
tion maps. The GND with deeper blue is presented near the GBs with
random misorientation at the failure areas, as shown in Fig. 10d and
10e. The number of activated slip systems under the multi-factor-driving
CF-HL loading is higher than those under the CFI loading. It may be due
to the fact that the HCF cycles during the hold periods activate addi­
tional slip systems to accommodate more dislocations emitted along
with slip directions. In order to analyze the GND evolution with corre­
sponding primary slip systems under both loading conditions, four
typical pathways named Path n (n = 1, 2, 3, 4) are extracted from
Fig. 10d and 10e, and the corresponding point-to-origin GND profiles
are plotted in Fig. 10f. The values of GNDs increase along with the paths
to cause the pile-up of dislocations towards to GBs. In particular, CF-HL
loading may give rise to slip system interactions to result in higher local
GND densities compared with that under CFI loading. For further evi­
dence, the similar phenomenon can be detected from the bright field
TEM morphology of the both CFI and CF-HL specimens, as seen in
Fig. 11. For the CFI specimen, dislocation lines accumulate continuously
along with single slip direction to form parallel slip bands (SBs), and the
slipping dislocations are hindered in the region near the TB (see in
Fig. 11a). The corresponding illustration for the failure physical mech­
anisms under the CFI loading is schematically shown in Fig. 11b.
However, for the CF-HL specimen (see in Fig. 11c and 11d), some
amounts of dislocations along with double slip directions result in the
formations of cross-SBs within the grain and then are stopped by the GB.
Fig. 11. TEM micrographs and schematic physical mechanisms: (a)-(b) CFI specimen (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th = 300 s); (c)-(d) CF-HL specimen (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th = 300 s, ΔεH
= 0.32 %).
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International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154
4.2.2. Quantitative analysis based on CPFE simulation
As discussed in Section 4.1.3, the microstructure-based method can
accurately predict crack initiation life since it can capture the local stress
and strain evolutions under different loading waveforms at grain-level.
A very intuitive description in the effects of loading waveforms on
microplasticity developments are obtained in Fig. 12. The simulated
local stress under CFI loading at the second cycle is lowest compared
with that under LCF and CF-HL loadings at the fixed ΔεL due to the stress
relaxation behavior during the hold time period, as shown in Fig. 4c. In
addition, the maximum stress concentrations mostly appear at the triple
junctions of GBs in all of the loading waveforms under consideration. To
further investigate the effect of loading waveforms on the micro­
plasticity, the contour maps of accumulated energy dissipations at the
second cycle are respectively are shown in Fig. 12b. A clear observation
is that the accumulated energy dissipation heterogeneously distributes
in these contour plots due to the local misorientation among the
neighboring grains. Especially, the slip bands of accumulated energy
dissipation under CF-HL loading are more obvious than that under LCF
and CFI loadings. It indicates that the CF-HL loading leads to higher
numbers of slip system activations, and EBSD-TEM combinative char­
acterizations reassuringly reproduce this conclusion in Section 4.2.1.
Qualitative understanding of local microplasticity fields is of great
significance for the damage evolution. The local grain distributions with
different orientations in the CPFE model are schematically shown in
Fig. 13 to collect equivalent stress and accumulated energy dissipation
under the three loading waveforms. The numbers from 1 to 5 in the sub-
figure of Fig. 13 represent five investigated grains. The collected results
at the second cycle for the LCF (ΔεL = 1.6 %), CFI (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th = 300
s) and CF-HL (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th = 300 s, ΔεH = 0.32 %) specimens are
shown in Fig. 14. The relationships between grains 1 and 2 in terms of
equivalent stress and accumulated energy dissipation obtained from the
K.-S. Li et al. International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154

Fig. 12. Equivalent stress and (b) accumulated energy dissipation under LCF loading (ΔεL = 1.6 %), CFI loading (ΔεL = 1.6 %, th = 300 s) and CF-HL loading (ΔεL =
1.6 %, th = 300 s, ΔεH = 0.32 %) at the second cycle.

Fig. 13. Grain distribution of the CPFE model and the sub-figures showing the individual grain with different orientations.

three loading conditions are shown in Fig. 14a. The activated slip sys­
tems for each grain are also highlighted in Fig. 14a. The distributions of
equivalent stress and accumulated energy dissipation along with path A-
A’ reveal higher quantities under CF-HL loading, as well as higher ones
in G1 near the GB. A very similar evolution was given as compared to the
relationship between grains 3 and 5 (see in Fig. 14b). The combined
effects of inhomogeneous grain orientation and complicated loading
paths are primary reason to induce more damage accumulation and
cause premature failure under CF-HL loading.
5. Conclusions
A series of low cycle fatigue tests, creep-fatigue tests, and newly
developed creep-fatigue combined with high-low cyclic tests are con­
ducted in a nickel-based superalloy at the elevated temperature of 650
℃. Computationally, a numerical procedure based on crystal plasticity
finite element is implemented to investigate the crack initiation mech­
anisms and predict the corresponding lifetimes. The main conclusions of
this work are summarized as follows:

13
K.-S. Li et al.
Fig. 14. Evolutions of localization fields in terms of equivalent stress and accumulated energy dissipation under different loading waveforms at the second cycle: (a)
relationship between grains 1 and 2; (b) relationship between grains 3 and 5.
(1) Three types of strain-controlled tests are implemented in Inconel
718 superalloy at 650 ℃. The crack initiation life decreases with
increase in both total strain range and hold time. In particular,
the life in the novel creep-fatigue combined with high-low cyclic
loading tests is obviously lower than that in creep-fatigue inter­
action tests under a fixed total strain range due to the high cycle
fatigue damage superposed on creep damage during the hold
period.
(2) With the help of fatigue and creep indicator parameters modified
by energy dissipation criterion, a microstructure-based life pre­
diction method in terms of the novel combined tests is developed.
The low cycle fatigue damage, high cycle fatigue damage and
creep damage are concurrently considered in the life prediction
method by linear damage summation rule. Based on experimental
verification, all data points lie within an error band of ± 3.0 and
almost 95 % of them lie an error band of ± 2 on life. Furthermore,
a triangle plot is established to exhibit each damage contribution.
14
International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154
the percentage of creep damage increases with the increase in
hold time, while high cycle fatigue damage accumulated during
the novel combined tests depends on the combination effects of
hold time and total strain range.
(3) The post-test microstructure observations are carried out to
reveal the damage mechanisms under creep-fatigue combined
with high-low cyclic loading based on the EBSD-TEM combina­
tive characterizations. The double-slip-dominated deformation
mechanism is observed under the complicated creep-fatigue
loading. Computationally, the numerical procedure with a com­
bination of crystal plasticity theory and finite element imple­
mentation is constructed to reflect the crack initiation
mechanism. The misorientation among neighboring grains and
multiple slip system activation collectively bring about the crack
initiation under the creep-fatigue combined with high-low cyclic
loading.
K.-S. Li et al. International Journal of Fatigue 164 (2022) 107154

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contacts. Int J Fatigue 2003;25:1047–58.
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interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence [26] Lu X, Dunne FPE, Xu Y. A crystal plasticity investigation of slip system interaction,
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