Effects of the Solution Treatment on Microstructural Evolution, Mechanical Properties, and Fracture Mechanism of Nickel-Based GH4099 Superalloy

Grain growth, mechanical properties, and fracture mechanism of nickel-based GH4099 superalloy are investigated using heat treatments, tensile tests, optical microscopy (OM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The OM observation shows that the matrix grains (γ-grains) undergo an apparent growth during the solution treatment. The grain size diameter increases from 100 to 174 μm when the solution temperature rises from 1100℃ to 1160℃ for 30 min. When the holding time increases from 15 to 60 min at 1140℃, the grain size diameter increases from 140 to 176 μm, indicating that the γ-grain growth is more sensitive to temperature than time. Standard deviation, Sv, and the grain size distribution are utilized to characterize the microstructural uniformity. To predict the grain size more accurately, we develop the grain growth kinetics and find that the growth index is close to 5. The yield strength (Rp0.2), tensile strength (Rm), and ductility (Af) are also measured. It is found that the effect decreases in the order cooling rate, solution temperature, time. Rp0.2 reduces by 47% with the increase in the cooling rate from 1℃ to 8000℃/min, while both strength and ductility exhibit little changes with time. The SEM results show that the fracture surfaces have typical mixed brittle and ductile characteristics when specimens are subjected to water quenching and air cooling. However, a complete brittle fracture occurs under furnace cooling conditions. The EDS analysis indicates that the brittle γ' (Ni3Ti) phase precipitates around the γ-grain boundary during the slow cooling process, which is the main factor yielding the complete brittle fracture. Finally, the optimal solution treatment scheme for the GH4099 superalloy is proposed—a temperature of 1140℃ for 30 min followed by air cooling.

Detection and analysis of basic variables during linear friction welding of GH4169 superalloy

By monitoring the line voltage and current of the driving motor during linear friction welding （ LFW） of GH4169 superalloy, the frictional power of the rubbing interface between two components to be joined was detected. The data was recorded by a data acquisition card and processed by the LabVIEW software. By analyzing the evolution of frictional power, the joint formation mechanism was discussed. The curves of the measured basic variables （frictional power, axial shortening, interfacial temperature and axial pressure） reflected the characteristics of the LFW process and offered an effective way for welding parameter optimization.

SUPERPLASTIC FORMING AND AP-PLICATION OF GH4169 SUPERALLOY

The superplastic forming and application of GH4169 superalloy are studied. It is shown that for the typical superplastic forming strain rates of 10- 3 s 1 to 10- 4 s -1, the available engineering strains of the fine-grain GH4169 superalloy are always higher than 250% within wide temperature scopes (920 -980℃), and the maximum elongation to failure obtained is 513%. Dynamic grain growth is presented during superplastic deforming for the alloy, and the grain becomes larger with the increase of the strain. A GH4169 fuel manifold of an aerocraft is superplastically formed, and the superplastically formed GH4169 mainfold is tested by 30 MPa hydraulic pressure for 10 min. So some GH4169 alloy complex components can be superplastically formed in the aerospace industry to decrease the costs of fabricating these components.

Stress Relaxation Behavior of GH4169 Superalloy

GH4169 superalloy stress relaxation test was investigated to study its characteristics of stress relaxation curves at various temperatures( 550,650,and 750 ℃). These curves presented jointly two distinct stages,the stage of inner stress relaxing quickly,and the stage of inner stress relaxing slowly and closing to the stress relaxation limit. And these curves obtained could be fitted by second order exponential decay function well. Based on the experimental stress relaxation curves,the relationship between stress relaxation rate and time were derived, which showed that the higher relaxation temperature and the greater initial rate of stress relaxation. The whole process presented two different stages,the stage of stress relaxation rate falling rapidly and the stage of stress relaxation rate slowing down and tending to be constant. The relation curve between creep strain rate and stress of GH4169 superalloy can be divided into three stages,low stress stage,transition stage,and high stress stage.Both the high stage and the low stage present linear correlation.

Microstructure and homogenization process of as-cast GH4169D alloy for novel turbine disk

To investigate the microstructure, segregation, and suitable homogenization process of as-cast GH4169D alloy, the microstructure, elements segregation, and precipitates of cast GH4169D ingots prepared by vacuum induction melting (VIM) and vacuum arc remelting (VAR) were observed by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). According to the residual segregation model and simulation results of DICTRA thermodynamic software, the homogenization temperature and time range were set as 1120–1170°C and 5–20 h, respectively. The experimental results showed that microscopic dendrite and element segregation occurred in the interior of ingots and the main segregation elements were Nb and Ti. In addition, the precipitates were mainly distributed in interdendritic regions and were composed of NbC, Laves,γ′, and δ phases. The homogenization process suggested that the interdendritic detrimental precipitated Laves phase can be eliminated or redissolved after homogenization at 1150°C for 20 h, suggesting it was the most suitable homogenization treatment. Thermal compression test results showed that the GH4169D alloys after homogenization treatment had no cracks and dynamic recrystallization occurred, with recrystallization volume fraction increasing with temperature, indicating a good working plasticity at temperatures from 1050 to 1200°C.

Formation mechanism of large grains inside annealed microstructure of GH4169 superalloy by cellular automation method

In authors’ previous work [Mater. Charact. 141 (2018) 212-222]. it was found that the heterogeneous deformed microstructures can be replaced by the relatively homogeneous recrystallized grains through an annealing treatment. However, there are still some relatively large recrystallized grains. To find the reasons for the formation of large grains, some new annealing treatment tests were done, and the cellular automation (CA) simulations were carried out in the present work. The experimental results showed that the microstructural evolution during annealing treatment is significantly affected by the content of S phase. So. the effects of δ phase on the nucleation and growth of grains are carefully considered in the CA model to accurately simulate the microstructural evolution behavior. By the CA simulation, it is found that the dislocation density rapidly decreases due to the nucleation of static recrystallization (SRX) and the growth of dynamc recrystallization (DRX) nuclei at the early stage of annealing. The high initial dislocation density provide the high velocity for the growth of DRX nuclei, which is responsible for the formation of coarse grains, However, the growth rate of SRX nuclei is relatively small due to the low dislocation density and pinning effects of δ phase.

Effect of δ Phase on Microstructure and Hardness of Heat-Affected Zone in TIG-Welded GH4169 Superalloy

The GH4169 superalloy with different content ofδ-Ni3Nb phase was welded by tungsten inert gas welding.A detailed study of microstructure and hardness of heat-affected zone(HAZ)was performed in both as-welded and aged state.The results show that the precipitation ofδphase,especially the intergranularδphase,can lead to the enrichment of Nb and Mo elements,which promote the formation ofγ/Laves eutectic constituent at grain boundaries in HAZ.In as-welded state,the hardness decreases first and then increases(exhibiting a"V"shape)with distance away from fusion line in HAZ,which is governed by grain size.After aging treatment,however,theγ″phase plays a key role in hardness and leads to the"■"shape profiles of hardness in HAZ.

Creep-fatigue crack growth behavior in GH4169 superalloy

This study aims to examine the crack growth behavior of turbine disc GH4169 superalloy under creepfatigue loading. Crack growth experiments were performed on compact tension specimens using trapezoidal waveform with dwell time at the maximum load at 650℃. The crack growth rate of GH4169 superalloy significantly increased with dwell time. The grain boundaries oxidize during the dwell process, thereby inducing an intergranular creep-fhtigue fracture mode. In addition, testing data under the same dwell time showed scattering at the crack growth rate. Consequently, a modified model based on the Saxena equation was proposed by introducing a distribution factor for the crack growth rate. Microstructural observation confirmed that the small grain size and high volume fraction of the δ phase led to a fast creep-fatigue crack growth rate at 650℃, thus indicating that two factors, namely, fine grain and presence of the δ phase at the grain boundary, increased the amount of weakened interface at high temperature, in which intergranular cracks may form and propagate.

Kinematics and Dynamics Model of GH4169 Alloy for Thermal Deformation

The stress-strain curves and microstructure properties of superalloy GH4169 was tested by thermal simulation experiment with different parameters,which were deformation temperature and strain rate and strain and original grain size.The influence of technology parameters on crystal grain size of dynamic recrystallization（DRC）was analyzed.The kinematics model of superalloy GH4169 was established,in which the relation between grain size of dynamic recrystallization and function Z（Zener-Hollomon）and parameters was described.The dynamics model of superalloy GH4169 was put forward,which described the relation between the quantity of dynamic recrystallization and function Z and parameters.The research results showed that the grain size of dynamic recrystallization increased with increasing the temperature and decreasing the strain rate.And the grain size of DRC bore no relationship to original grain size.And the quantity of dynamic recrystallization decreased with increasing the original grain size.