Progress in application of rare metals in superalloys

Rare metals play an important role in development of superalloys. Over the last two decades, the application of the rare metals in superalloys has achieved progress significantly. They present multi-beneficial effects for strengthening the matrix and the cophase, increasing the lattice misfit, cleaning the grain boundary, improving the carbides and eutectics, refining the grain, stabilizing the oxidation film, etc., so that the elevated temperature rupture life and elevated temperature oxidation resistance are improved significantly, leading to a broad application in the superalloys. In order to meet the higher demand for better superalloys in the future, more intensive research is necessary on the effects of the rare metals on the superalloy, and especially on the combination effect of various rare metals and mutual influence among them. Utilization of the computational materials science and combinatorial high throughput experiment will be of importance in application of rare metals in superalloys.

Application of heat absorption method to reduce macrosegregation during solidification of bearing steel ingot

The control of macrosegregation is still a difficult problem for the production of large steel ingots.In order to develop new techniques for producing low-macrosegregation and high-quality steel ingots,the effect of the heat absorption method(HAM)used by the inorganic material rods to cool the liquid steel on the formation of macrosegregation during solidification of a 5-t GCr15SiMn bearing steel ingot was studied using experiment and mathematical simulation.The inorganic material was a mixture of CaF2 and CaO.The levels of macrosegregation in the longitudinal sections of two ingots with and without HAM were compared.Experimental results showed that the application of HAM reduced the positive segregation in the upper part of the ingot and the negative segregation in the lower part.The levels of carbon segregation along the longitudinal centerline and horizontal direction at different heights were all alleviated and the fluctuation of carbon segregation was significantly reduced.The simulation results confirmed that the melting and floating of the inorganic material could carry the sensible heat to the top of the liquid steel quickly.This leads to the acceleration of the cooling rate of the liquid steel,thereby alleviating the level of macrosegregation.

Reduction in Microsegregation in Al-Cu Alloy by Alternating Magnetic Field

The microsegregation behavior of the Al-4.5 wt%Cu alloy solidified at different cooling rates under the alternating magnetic field(AMF) was investigated.The experimental results showed that the amount of non-equilibrium eutectics in the interdendritic region decreased upon applying the AMF at the same cooling rate.The change in microsegregation could be explained quantificationally by the modifications of dendritic coarsening,solid-state back diffusion and convection in the AMF.The enhanced diffusivity in the solid owing to the AMF was beneficial for the improvement in microsegregation compared to the cases without an AMF.In contrast,the enhanced dendritic coarsening and forced convection in the AMF were found to aggravate the microsegregation level.Considering the contributions of the changes in above factors,an increase in solid diffusivity was found to be primarily responsible for the reduced microsegregation in the AMF.In addition,the microsegregation in the AMF was modeled using the analytical model developed by Voller.The calculated and experimental results were in reasonable agreement.

Effect of seed particles content on texture formation of Si_3N_4 ceramics by gel-casting in a strong magnetic field

In this paper, the textured Si3N4 ceramics were prepared by adding seed particles during gel-casting in the magnetic field of 6 T, followed by pressureless sintering. The effect of pH on the stability and dispersibility of Si3N4 slurry and the effect of seed particles content on texture formation of SiaN4 ceramics were both studied. Those results showed that the slurry with good stability and dispersibility was obtained when pH was about 11.6. The a or b-axis of Si3N4 particles or crystals was aligned parallel to the direction of the magnetic field in the magnetic field of 6 T. The degree of texture of Si3N4 ceramics further increased during sintering. With the increasing of additional β-Si3N4 particles in the magnetic field of 6 T, the degree of texture increased from 0.19 without seed particles to 0.76 with 9% （mass fraction） seed particles. The increase of seed particles content promoted the texture formation of Si3N4 ceramics.

Preface

In 2021,the world crude steel production was beyond 1.8 billion tonnes.Although the emergence and flourishing of continuous casting technique led to high steel production,up to 92%of the total production,and the percentage of the ingot product decreased to less than 8%,the ingot product is still indispensable.