Extreme high lattice-misfit superalloys with regular cubic L12 particles and excellent creep resistance

TL;DR

This study develops novel Co-based superalloys with high lattice misfit and solvus temperature, achieving improved creep resistance and stable cubic gamma prime precipitates at high temperatures, advancing high-temperature alloy performance.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new alloy design strategy combining high lattice misfit and stable cubic gamma prime precipitates for enhanced creep resistance.

Findings

High Ti content yields lattice misfit >1.3% and solvus temperature >1150°C.

Alloys with high Ti/Al ratio show lower gamma prime coarsening rate and higher volume fraction.

New alloys with high Cr and Ta exhibit superior creep resistance at 850-950°C.

Abstract

In novel Co and CoNi based superalloys, the creep resistance is limited at high temperatures due to low lattice misfit and solvus temperature. In this study, we combined the advantages of Co-Ti (high lattice misfit and solvus temperature) and Co-Al based superalloys (cuboidal precipitates) by using Ti to substitute Al in alloys of Co-30Ni-(12.5-x)Al-xTi-2.5Mo-2.5W (at.%) composition. With high Ti content, the alloys obtained extreme high lattice misfit (bigger than 1.3 %) and solvus temperature (bigger than 1150 degree). During aging at 900 degree, alloys with high Ti/Al ratio exhibited a lower gamma prime precipitate coarsening rate resulting from their lower gamma prime and gamma interfacial energy and higher lattice misfit. In addition, high Ti/Al ratio brought higher gamma prime volume fraction and excellent mechanical properties, such as higher yield stress and better creep resistance. However, at high temperature of 1100 degree, the cubic gamma prime phase was decomposed into deleterious Eta phase with D024 structure if the Ti/Al ratio exceeded 1. Based on this, we outreached new alloys design with a high content of Cr and Ta and appropriate Ti/Al ratio, i.e., Ti/Al ratio is smaller than 1. The newly designed alloys still have high solvus temperature (bigger than 1200 degree) and exhibit high lattice misfit (bigger than 1.2 %) as Co-12Ti (at.%) superalloys but more regular cubic gamma prime precipitates and significantly better creep resistance than superalloys Co-9Al-9W and Co-9Al-9W-2Ti at 850 and 950 degree. Nevertheless, compared with creep resistance of Ni based superalloys, our newly designed alloys still need to be further improved, especially in the 1000 and 1050 degree range.