Validation of Hot Corrosion and Fatigue Models in HOTPITS

HOTPITS is a set of physics-based modeling tools for treating Type II hot corrosion in Ni-based superalloys. The methodology includes modeling the nucleation, growth, and coalescence of pits and microcracks as a random process, as well as the transition of pits to micrcracks and the propagation of the resulting large crack to failure. In this investigation, critical experiments were performed on coupon and low-cycle fatigue (LCF) specimens in order to validate the hot corrosion and the fatigue models in HOTPITS. The pit nucleation, growth, and coalescence models in HOTPITS including the assumption of a random process are validated by the hot corrosion critical experiments performed at two salt contents. The LCF critical experiments, performed using a marker band protocol, validated the stress concentration factor-based models used to predict the pit-to-crack transition in the HOTPITS tool.