Very High Cycle Fatigue Investigations on the Fatigue Strength of Additive Manufactured and Conventionally Wrought Inconel 718 at 873 K

The fatigue lives of additively manufactured (AM) Inconel 718 (IN718) produced by selective electron beam melting and conventional wrought material as reference conditions were studied in the very high cycle fatigue regime under fully reversed loading (R = −1) at the elevated temperature of 873 K using an ultrasonic fatigue testing system. The fatigue lives of the AM material were significantly reduced compared to the wrought material, which is discussed in relation to the microstructure and a fractographical analysis. The additively manufactured material showed large columnar grains with a favoured orientation to the building direction and porosity, whereas the wrought material showed a fine-grained structure with no significant texture, but had Nb- and Ti-rich non-metallic inclusions. Crystallographic crack initiation as well as crack initiation from the surface or internal defects were observed for the AM and the wrought IN718, respectively