Determination of Stress Values in the Surface Layer of Inconel 718 Samples Dedicated to Fatigue Tests

This work deals with the problem of X-ray stress determination on the samples dedicated to fatigue tests. A number of research studies point out the fact that the processing of hard, difficult to machine materials like nickel superalloys, reveals more than one trend of residual stress versus working parameters of behaviour (Lavella and Berruti, 2010). Many papers have shown that the residual stresses are dependent on a combination of a number of factors. When the above is taken into account simultaneously with the requirements of the internal General Electric specification for the fatigue tests samples preparation (Metallic test specimen preparation, low stress, 2017) the problem of turning and grinding parameters gathers significance. It is well known that the quality of the surface layer, produced during machining, is of vital importance for the fatigue life specially for the components of aircraft produced form nickel superalloys e.g. Inconel 718 (Kortabarri et al., 2011). That is why the surface layer’s properties are described in detail by the standards. The aim of the work is to determine one of the most influential features from the point of view of fatigue life, i.e. the stress state on the surface layer with one non-destructive method – the diffraction analysis.