Foreign object damage characteristics and their effects on high cycle fatigue property of Ni‐based superalloy GH4169.

In this study, high‐speed ballistic impact tests were conducted on GH4169 alloy samples with the aeroengine compressor blade leading‐edge feature to simulate the notch‐type foreign object damages (FOD). Macroscopic and microscopic characterization of FOD and high cycle fatigue tests were performed to investigate the effect of FOD depth on GH4169 alloy fatigue strength along with numerical analysis using the Kitagawa–Takahashi diagram. Results show that the incident side of notch‐type FODs is relatively smooth, whereas the exit side is rugged. The FOD depth ranges from 0.18 to 1.33 mm, and the fatigue strength of damaged samples is 37.93% – 97.04% of the undamaged samples. As the FOD depth increases, damage length, material losses, and the stress concentration coefficient of the FOD increase significantly and accompanied by the increasing of adiabatic shear bands, micro voids, and cracks, resulting in fatigue strength reduction. Numerical analysis indicates that the Kitagawa–Takahashi diagram can provide a basic model for the design of FOD tolerance. Highlights: The macro and micro features of FOD notches with varying damage depths were characterized.Grooves at FOD notch bottom may lead to premature initiation of high cycle fatigue cracks.Fatigue strength of FOD samples decreases with the increase of the damage depth.The K‐T diagram can provide a basis for the design of foreign object damage tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]