Multi-Scale Crystal Plasticity Model of Creep Responses in Nickel-Based Superalloys

The current study focuses on the modeling of two-phase γ-γ' nickel-based superalloys, utilizing multi-scale approaches to simulate and predict the creep behaviors through crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE) platforms. The multi-scale framework links two distinct levels of the spatial spectrum, namely, sub-grain and homogenized scales, capturing the complexity of the system responses as a function of a tractable set of geometric and physical parameters. The model considers two dominant features of γ' morphology and composition. The γ' morphology is simulated using three parameters describing the average size, volume fraction, and shape. The sub-grain level is expressed by a size-dependent, dislocation density-based constitutive model in the CPFE framework with the explicit depiction of γ-γ' morphology as the building block of the homogenized scale. The homogenized scale is developed as an activation energy-based crystal plasticity model reflecting intrinsic composition and morphology effects. The model incorporates the functional configuration of the constitutive parameters characterized over the sub-grain γ-γ' microstructural morphology. The developed homogenized model significantly expedites the computational processes due to the nature of the parameterized representation of the dominant factors while retains reliable accuracy. Anti-Phase Boundary (APB) shearing and, glide-climb dislocation mechanisms are incorporated in the constitutive model which will become active based on the energies associated with the dislocations. The homogenized constitutive model addresses the thermo-mechanical behavior of nickel-based superalloys for an extensive temperature domain and encompasses orientation dependence as well as the loading condition of tension-compression asymmetry aspects. The model is validated for diverse compositions, temperatures, and orientations based on previously reported data of single crystalline nickel-based superalloy.