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Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Ni-based Superalloy K418 Produced by the Continuous Unidirectional Solidification Process

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Abstract

Adopting effective strategies to control the solidification structure of Ni-based superalloys is a very interesting subject for metallurgists. Despite the achievement of developing and applying the continuous unidirectional solidification process in simple alloys, the utilization of this process for K418 alloys has been ignored. The microstructure and mechanical properties of a K418 alloy ingot produced by the continuous unidirectional solidification process were investigated. We found that the γ dendrites were typically cross-shaped in the transverse section. The orientation of surviving grains along the casting direction was <001> during competitive growth. The secondary dendrite arm spacing was 32.3 ± 2.5 μm at a cooling rate of 1.75 ± 0.35 °C/s from the surface to the center of the K418 alloy ingot. Due to the higher cooling rate than that of the conventional casting process, a more uniform microstructure and finer γ′ precipitation were obtained in the ingot. Thus, compared with the conventional casting, the tensile strength and the elongation are increased by 8.4 and 21.3%, respectively, at 25 °C. The tensile strength and elongation increased by 15.2 and 49.3%, respectively, at 800 °C. In addition, the fracture surfaces exhibited numerous typical dimples and dendritic fracture characteristics.

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Acknowledgments

This work is financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U1560202, 51604171, 51690162), National Science and Technology Major Project “Aeroengine and Gas Turbine” (2017-VII-0008-0102), and the Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2017YFB0405902).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Special Steel and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advanced Ferrometallurgy and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200072, People’s Republic of China

    Fan Yang, Jiang Wang, Jianbo Yu, Zhenghua Zhou, Baojun Wang, Tingsheng Tu, Xingfu Ren, Kang Deng & Zhongming Ren

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  1. Fan Yang
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Correspondence to Jianbo Yu or Zhongming Ren.

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Yang, F., Wang, J., Yu, J. et al. Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Ni-based Superalloy K418 Produced by the Continuous Unidirectional Solidification Process. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 28, 6483–6491 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-019-04385-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-019-04385-5

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