Nickel Base Single Crystals Across Length Scales is addresses the most advanced knowledge in metallurgy and computational mechanics and how they are applied to superalloys used as bare materials or with a thermal barrier coating system. Joining both aspects, the book helps readers understand the mechanisms driving properties and their evolution from fundamental to application level. These guidelines are helpful for students and researchers who wish to understand issues and solutions, optimize materials, and model them in a cross-check analysis, from the atomistic to component scale. The book is useful for students and engineers as it explores processing, characterization and design. Provides an up-to-date overview on the field of superalloys Covers the relationship between microstructural evolution and mechanical behavior at high temperatures Discusses both basic and advanced modeling and characterization techniques Includes case studies that illustrate the application of techniques presented in the book

An important application of nickel base superalloys is in the industrial gas turbine (IGT) industry, where the high temperature capabilities of these alloys are exploited. Extensive testing has focused on the tensile and fatigue properties of single crystal versions of these alloys. The single crystals are utilized in the hottest parts of the turbine, where a detailed knowledge of material behavior is critical to design and life assessment. However, studies on the effects of temperature on fracture toughness have largely been absent in both past and present literature. Therefore, the goal of this research is to characterize the fracture toughness properties of a second-generation single crystal nickel superalloy at elevated temperatures. The experimental methods follow ASTM guidelines, as does the analysis for the elastic (K) and plastic (J integral) deformation. The toughness values were invalid for plain strain fracture toughness, but this should be expected from a structural material. In spite of this fact, both the K- and J- based analyses reveal consistent trends. Increased plasticity at elevated temperatures results in an overall increase in toughness as temperature increases. Unusual cases with inclined pre-cracks and microstructural defects did not technically yield valid results, although they were consistent with the nominal cases. Overall, the results indicate that the toughness of single crystal nickel alloys is actually quite high. Thus, the lack of work in this subject is understandable. However, it would seem that any design and lifing work would benefit from an understanding of such a fundamental property.

Written by the leading experts in computational materials science, this handy reference concisely reviews the most important aspects of plasticity modeling: constitutive laws, phase transformations, texture methods, continuum approaches and damage mechanisms. As a result, it provides the knowledge needed to avoid failures in critical systems udner mechanical load. With its various application examples to micro- and macrostructure mechanics, this is an invaluable resource for mechanical engineers as well as for researchers wanting to improve on this method and extend its outreach.

The book helps to answer the following questions: How far have the understanding and mesoscale modeling advanced in recent decades, what are the key open questions that require further research and what are the mathematical and physical requirements for a mesoscale model intended to provide either insight or a predictive engineering tool? It is addressed to young researchers including doctoral students, postdocs and early career faculty,