Small punch fatigue testing of a nickel superalloy

Miniaturised mechanical test approaches, specifically small punch testing, are now widely recognised as a means of obtaining useful mechanical properties to characterise the creep, tensile and fracture characteristics of numerous material systems from a range of industrial applications. Limited success has been found in replicating fatigue properties through the use of a small punch disc. This paper will discuss the ongoing research and progress in developing a novel small punch fatigue testing facility at the Institute of Structural Materials at Swansea University. Experiments have been performed on the nickel superalloy C263 at ambient room temperature, investigating three different alloy variants; two orientations produced through additive manufacturing and the cast equivalent. Fractographic analysis has been completed to interpret the complex damage mechanisms in the test method along with the differences in performance amongst the alloy variants