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Microstructural Evolution of INCONEL® Alloy 740H® Fusion Welds During Creep

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Electron microscopy techniques have been used to investigate the cause of premature creep failure in the fusion zone of INCONEL® Alloy 740H® (INCONEL and 740H are registered trademarks of Special Metals Corporation) welds. The reduced creep rupture lives of all-weld-metal and cross-weld creep specimens (relative to base metal specimens) have been attributed to the presence of large grain boundary regions that were denuded in fine γ′ but contained coarse, elongated particles. Investigation of creep rupture specimens has revealed four factors that influence the formation of these coarsened zones, and the large particles found within them have been identified as γ′. Comparisons of the microstructural characteristics of these zones to the characteristics that are typical of denuded zones formed by a variety of mechanisms identified in the literature have been made. It is concluded that the mechanism of γ′-denuded zone formation in alloy 740H is discontinuous coarsening of the γ′ phase. The discontinuous reaction is catalyzed by the grain boundary migration and sliding which occur during creep and likely promoted by the inhomogeneous weld metal microstructure that results from solute segregation during solidification. The increased susceptibility to the formation of the observed γ′-denuded zones in the weld metal as compared to the base metal is discussed in the context of differences in the contributions to the driving force for the discontinuous coarsening reaction.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the NSF I/UCRC Center for Integrative Materials Joining Science for Energy Applications (CIMJSEA) under contract #IIP-1034703. They would also like to acknowledge the financial support provided by Special Metals Corporation, Huntington, WV. Additional thanks are given to Binay Patel at Lehigh University for assistance with the STEM in SEM characterization, as well as to Ronnie Gollihue at Special Metals, Jim Tanzosh at Babcock and Wilcox Company, and Paul Mason at ThermoCalc USA for the technical discussion and assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, 18015, USA

    Daniel H. Bechetti (Research Assistant), John N. DuPont (Professor) & Masashi Watanabe (Associate Professor)

  2. Special Metals Corporation, Huntington, WV, 25705, USA

    John J. de Barbadillo (Manager, Product & Process Development) & Brian A. Baker (Product and Application Development Engineer)

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  1. Daniel H. Bechetti
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Correspondence to Daniel H. Bechetti.

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Manuscript submitted April 2, 2014.

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Bechetti, D.H., DuPont, J.N., de Barbadillo, J.J. et al. Microstructural Evolution of INCONEL® Alloy 740H® Fusion Welds During Creep. Metall Mater Trans A 46, 739–755 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-014-2682-6

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