Fundamentals of Superalloys

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Inorganic Crystalline Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2019) | Viewed by 20973

Special Issue Editor

Institute of Physics of Materials of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
Interests: computational materials science; multi-scale modelling; solid-state physics and chemistry; magnetism; phase stability and transformations; nanosystems; quantum technologies; quantum computers
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Superalloys represent one of the most promising classes of high-performance materials. Primarily intended for high-temperature applications, they combine a number of crucial materials properties including excellent strength, creep resistance and surface stability (corrosion resistance). The key aspect is that these composites are formed by two phases coherently co-existing at the nano-scale. Superalloys based on Ni have recently become commercially used, those dominated by Co are intended to increase the operational temperatures even higher and, last but not least, Fe-based superalloys are being developed as cost-effective alternatives. Importantly, advanced materials design via fine-tunning the chemical composition and/or processing steps has not stopped in any of these superalloys sub-classes. Facing numerous industrial challenges, a major breakthrough is critically needed.

This Special Issue aims at allowing a further advancement in superalloys design via collecting findings related to superalloys composition, structure, properties and processing as well as their mutual inter-relations. Invited are contributions of experimental and/or theoretical nature addressing thermodynamic, structural, mechanical and electronic properties of constituting phases, interfaces between them, as well as overall composites.

Dr. Martin Friák
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • superalloys
  • structure
  • stability
  • modeling
  • materials design
  • structure-property relations

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 4999 KiB  
Article
Niobium Base Superalloys: Achievement of a Coherent Ordered Precipitate Structure in the Nb Solid-Solution
by François Saint-Antonin, Williams Lefebvre and Ivan Blum
Crystals 2019, 9(7), 345; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst9070345 - 05 Jul 2019
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3901
Abstract
In a previous work, the chemical elements necessary for the achievement of Niobium base superalloys were defined in order to get a structure equivalent to that of Nickel base superalloys, which contain ordered precipitates within a disordered solid-solution. It was especially emphasized that [...] Read more.
In a previous work, the chemical elements necessary for the achievement of Niobium base superalloys were defined in order to get a structure equivalent to that of Nickel base superalloys, which contain ordered precipitates within a disordered solid-solution. It was especially emphasized that precipitation hardening in the Niobium matrix would be possible with the addition of Ni. The remaining question about the design of such Niobium superalloys concerned the achievement of ordered precipitates in crystalline coherence with the Nb matrix i.e., with a crystalline structure equivalent to the Nb crystal prototype and with a lattice parameter in coherency with that of the Nb matrix. In order to reduce the trial/error experimental work, a reasoning based on various data for the achievement of coherency is presented. Then, starting from the Nb-Hf-Ni ternary alloy thus defined, this paper demonstrates that the precipitation of an ordered Nb phase within a disordered Nb matrix can be achieved with lattice parameter coherency between the ordered precipitates and the disordered matrix. The chemistry and the crystallographic structure of the precipitates were characterized using Transmission Electron Microscopy and Atom Probe Tomography. These results can help to conceive a new family of Nb base superalloys. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fundamentals of Superalloys)
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12 pages, 4235 KiB  
Article
Effect of Local Recrystallized Grains on the Low Cycle Fatigue Behavior of a Nickel-Based Single Crystal Superalloy
by Xianfeng Ma, Jishen Jiang, Wenjie Zhang, Hui-ji Shi and Jialin Gu
Crystals 2019, 9(6), 312; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst9060312 - 18 Jun 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3958
Abstract
This paper aims to understand the effect of local recrystallization (RX) on the low cycle fatigue fracture of a turbine-blade single crystal nickel-based superalloy. The fatigue life of the single crystal superalloy was evidently decreased by local recrystallization. In single crystal specimens, casting [...] Read more.
This paper aims to understand the effect of local recrystallization (RX) on the low cycle fatigue fracture of a turbine-blade single crystal nickel-based superalloy. The fatigue life of the single crystal superalloy was evidently decreased by local recrystallization. In single crystal specimens, casting porosity is the preferential fatigue crack initiation site, which is followed by crystallographic crack propagation along one or several octahedral slip planes. For all RX specimens, fatigue cracks preferred to initiate from local recrystallized grains and propagated through the recrystallized grains in a transgranular manner, followed by crystallographic crack propagation in the substrate single crystal superalloy. Moreover, fatigue tests indicated that locally recrystallized specimens exhibited temperature dependent fracture modes, i.e., transgranular cracking dominated at 550 °C, whereas intergranular cracking was preferred at 850 °C. Evident oxidation of fracture surfaces and strength degradation of grain boundaries at 850 °C was evidenced by scanning electronic microscopic observations. The present study emphasized the need to evaluate the effect of recrystallization according to the working conditions of turbine components, i.e., the local temperature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fundamentals of Superalloys)
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16 pages, 4061 KiB  
Article
Elasticity of Phases in Fe-Al-Ti Superalloys: Impact of Atomic Order and Anti-Phase Boundaries
by Martin Friák, Vilma Buršíková, Naděžda Pizúrová, Jana Pavlů, Yvonna Jirásková, Vojtěch Homola, Ivana Miháliková, Anton Slávik, David Holec, Monika Všianská, Nikola Koutná, Jan Fikar, Dušan Janičkovič, Mojmír Šob and Jörg Neugebauer
Crystals 2019, 9(6), 299; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst9060299 - 08 Jun 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4137
Abstract
We combine theoretical and experimental tools to study elastic properties of Fe-Al-Ti superalloys. Focusing on samples with chemical composition Fe71Al22Ti7, we use transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to detect their two-phase superalloy nano-structure (consisting of cuboids embedded into [...] Read more.
We combine theoretical and experimental tools to study elastic properties of Fe-Al-Ti superalloys. Focusing on samples with chemical composition Fe71Al22Ti7, we use transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to detect their two-phase superalloy nano-structure (consisting of cuboids embedded into a matrix). The chemical composition of both phases, Fe66.2Al23.3Ti10.5 for cuboids and Fe81Al19 (with about 1% or less of Ti) for the matrix, was determined from an Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) analysis. The phase of cuboids is found to be a rather strongly off-stoichiometric (Fe-rich and Ti-poor) variant of Heusler Fe2TiAl intermetallic compound with the L21 structure. The phase of the matrix is a solid solution of Al atoms in a ferromagnetic body-centered cubic (bcc) Fe. Quantum-mechanical calculations were employed to obtain an insight into elastic properties of the two phases. Three distributions of chemical species were simulated for the phase of cuboids (A2, B2 and L21) in order to determine a sublattice preference of the excess Fe atoms. The lowest formation energy was obtained when the excess Fe atoms form a solid solution with the Ti atoms at the Ti-sublattice within the Heusler L21 phase (L21 variant). Similarly, three configurations of Al atoms in the phase of the matrix with different level of order (A2, B2 and D03) were simulated. The computed formation energy is the lowest when all the 1st and 2nd nearest-neighbor Al-Al pairs are eliminated (the D03 variant). Next, the elastic tensors of all phases were calculated. The maximum Young’s modulus is found to increase with increasing chemical order. Further we simulated an anti-phase boundary (APB) in the L21 phase of cuboids and observed an elastic softening (as another effect of the APB, we also predict a significant increase of the total magnetic moment by 140% when compared with the APB-free material). Finally, to validate these predicted trends, a nano-scale dynamical mechanical analysis (nanoDMA) was used to probe elasticity of phases. Consistent with the prediction, the cuboids were found stiffer. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fundamentals of Superalloys)
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19 pages, 8607 KiB  
Article
On Crystal Mosaicity in Single Crystal Ni-Based Superalloys
by Philipp Hallensleben, Felicitas Scholz, Pascal Thome, Helge Schaar, Ingo Steinbach, Gunther Eggeler and Jan Frenzel
Crystals 2019, 9(3), 149; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst9030149 - 13 Mar 2019
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 6037
Abstract
In the present work, we investigate the evolution of mosaicity during seeded Bridgman processing of technical Ni-based single crystal superalloys (SXs). For this purpose, we combine solidification experiments performed at different withdrawal rates between 45 and 720 mm/h with advanced optical microscopy and [...] Read more.
In the present work, we investigate the evolution of mosaicity during seeded Bridgman processing of technical Ni-based single crystal superalloys (SXs). For this purpose, we combine solidification experiments performed at different withdrawal rates between 45 and 720 mm/h with advanced optical microscopy and quantitative image analysis. The results obtained in the present work suggest that crystal mosaicity represents an inherent feature of SXs, which is related to elementary stochastic processes which govern dendritic solidification. In SXs, mosaicity is related to two factors: inherited mosaicity of the seed crystal and dendrite deformation. Individual SXs have unique mosaicity fingerprints. Most crystals differ in this respect, even when they were produced using identical processing conditions. Small differences in the orientation spread of the seed crystals and small stochastic orientation deviations continuously accumulate during dendritic solidification. Direct evidence for dendrite bending in a seeded Bridgman growth process is provided. It was observed that continuous or sudden bending affects the growth directions of dendrites. We provide evidence which shows that some dendrites continuously bend by 1.7° over a solidification distance of 25 mm. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fundamentals of Superalloys)
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14 pages, 5875 KiB  
Article
Investigation on the Thermal Deformation Behavior of the Nickel-Based Superalloy Strengthened by γ′ Phase
by Haiping Wang, Dong Liu, Jianguo Wang, Yongzhao Shi, Yong Zheng and Yang Hu
Crystals 2019, 9(3), 125; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst9030125 - 28 Feb 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2450
Abstract
The isothermal compression tests of the nickel-based superalloy Waspaloy were carried out under various temperatures from 1040 to 1120 °C and strain rates from 0.01 to 10 s−1 with the height reduction of 60% and the flow stress curves were obtained. The [...] Read more.
The isothermal compression tests of the nickel-based superalloy Waspaloy were carried out under various temperatures from 1040 to 1120 °C and strain rates from 0.01 to 10 s−1 with the height reduction of 60% and the flow stress curves were obtained. The curves show that the flow stress is greatly affected by the temperature and strain rates. Regression analysis of the experimental results was carried out to learn about the deformation behavior through the Arrhenius equation and came to the conclusion that the activation energy of Waspaloy is 669.7 kJ/mol. The constitutive equation of the Waspaloy was constructed. Meanwhile, the processing maps of the Waspaloy for the power dissipation and the flow instability were constructed. The processing map of the power dissipation and the flow instability depicts that the strain plays a major role in the processing maps. The instability zone is prone to appear at higher strain rates with the increasing strains. According to the instability processing map, there are three unsafe regimes around 1040–1120 °C/1.5–10 s−1, 1040–1080 °C/0.02–0.1 s−1 and 1110–1120 °C/0.02–0.3 s−1 that should be avoided during deformation process. The power dissipation maps show that the maximum dissipation is prone to appear at low strain rates (0.01 s−1) when the strain is about 0.1~0.6 while at middle strain rates (0.1–1 s−1) when the strain is over 0.6, and when the true strain is 0.9, the optimum processing condition is around 1060–1120 °C/0.1–1 s−1. The dynamic microstructures under different temperatures and strain rates were also obtained. We concluded that lower strain rates and higher temperatures are more applicable to obtain fully-recrystallized microstructures. Based on the instability maps and the power dissipation maps and the dynamic microstructures, the optimum deformation conditions are determined to be around 1080–1100 °C/0.1–1 s−1 and 1040–1120 °C/0.01 s−1. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fundamentals of Superalloys)
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