
Fracture initiation and crack propagation were analyzed afterward using scanning electron microscopy of the resulting fracture surfaces. For this purpose, a series of tests with different starting microstructures were performed at the falling stress intensity factor range, ΔK, and a load ratio of R = 0.1 to evaluate the different threshold values. In the present work, we investigate the dependence of the threshold of stress intensity factor range ΔK th on associated microstructural elements, namely grain size and distribution.

In industrial practice, these processing steps are tailored to achieve specific mechanical and microstructural properties in the final product.

Alloy 718 for forged parts can form a wide range of microstructures through a variety of thermo-mechanical processes, depending on the number of remelting processes, temperature and holding time of homogenization annealing, cogging and the number of forging steps depending on the forming characteristics.
