Kim Louisa Auth

1 Introduction Understanding the phenomena underlying ductile fracture is important for efficient design of many engineering components. Ductile fracture in metals usually occurs after significant plastic deformation. The fracture process proceeds from plastification to damage initiation, followed by the development of microscopic cracks and eventually the evolution of those into macroscopic cracks that can cause component failure.

1 INTRODUCTION Nickel-based superalloys are often used in applications that require high-strength materials operating at high temperatures, such as turbine disks in jet engines. Under a combination of high temperatures, tensile mechanical loading and exposure to oxygen during significant dwell times, polycrystalline nickel-based superalloys are known to experience brittle intergranular failure.