Preparation and Size Effect of GH3600 Nickel-Based Superalloy Ultra-Thin Strips
YU Shaoxia, WANG Qi, DENG Xiangtao(), WANG Zhaodong()
State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
Cite this article:
YU Shaoxia, WANG Qi, DENG Xiangtao, WANG Zhaodong. Preparation and Size Effect of GH3600 Nickel-Based Superalloy Ultra-Thin Strips. Acta Metall Sin, 2023, 59(10): 1365-1375.
Nickel-based superalloys have gathered much attention recently due to their excellent performance at high temperatures and corrosion resistance. Furthermore, their advancement is a crucial indicator to determine the development level of metallic materials. Thus, rapid development in microsystem technology which focuses on development of lightweight and miniaturized materials is required. Moreover, the demand for micromaterials such as ultra-thin strips is also growing, leading to higher demand and better performance requirements. China's production of ultra-thin strips started relatively late and nickel-based ultra-thin strips rely on imports. Strengthening the production research of nickel-based ultra-thin strips, meeting the needs of aerospace and emerging microsystems, and removing import dependence are key issues that need to be addressed in future. The accurate acquisition of microstructure variations and strip properties after thinning and heat treatment is crucial in controlling the forming accuracy and preventing defects. Remarkably, the GH3600 nickel-based superalloy with thicknesses from 0.5 mm with polycrystalline layer to 0.07 mm with local single crystal layer was obtained by cold rolling and annealing. The effects of cold rolling reduction and annealing temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the superalloy were investigated, and changes in the microstructure and mechanical properties caused by thickness variation were analyzed. The results reveal that with the increase of cold rolling reduction, the austenite grains in the alloy are elongated along the rolling direction, and the annealing twins gradually disappear. A complete recrystallization microstructure was obtained after further annealing, and grain size increased with the annealing temperature while the strength and hardness decreased. After annealing at the same temperature, the material's yield strength increases with the reduction and refinement of the recrystallized grain. However, as the strip thickness decreases, the grain layer decreases along the direction of the strip thickness. After annealing at 1000 and 1050oC, abnormal coarse grains appear in 0.07 mm thick strips, leading to the appearance of single grains in some areas along the thickness direction of the ultra-thin strips. The tensile strength and elongation of the strip are “smaller and weaker” with the decrease of strip thickness/average grain size ratio due to the size effect. The comparative analysis demonstrated that the average grain size of GH3600 ultra-thin strips annealed at 800-900oC is approximately 7 μm, the local orientation difference is approximately 0.5, the yield and tensile strengths could reach up to 400 and 600 MPa, and the elongation is approximately 13%, respectively.
Fund: National Natural Science Foundation of China(51874089)
Corresponding Authors:
DENG Xiangtao, associate professor, Tel: (024)83686415, E-mail: dengxt@mail.neu.edu.cn; WANG Zhaodong, professor, Tel: (024)83686426, E-mail: zhdwang@mail.neu.edu.cn
Fig.1 OM image of 0.5 mm thickness GH3600 nickel-based superalloy strip (Arrow A shows the twin terminate inside grain, arrow B shows the twin throughout the grain)
Fig.2 OM images of GH3600 nickel-based superalloy cold rolled strips with thicknesses of 0.25 mm (a), 0.125 mm (b), and 0.07 mm (c) (RD—rolling direction, ND—rolling direction)
Fig.3 Hardness curves of GH3600 nickel-based superalloy cold rolled strips with different thicknesses
Fig.4 OM images of GH3600 nickel-based superalloy strips with different thicknesses after annealing at different temper-atures (a1) 800oC, 0.25 mm (a2) 900oC, 0.25 mm (a3) 1000oC, 0.25 mm (a4) 1050oC, 0.25 mm (b1) 800oC, 0.125 mm (b2) 900oC, 0.125 mm (b3) 1000oC, 0.125 mm (b4) 1050oC, 0.125 mm (c1) 800oC, 0.07 mm (c2) 900oC, 0.07 mm (c3) 1000oC, 0.07 mm (c4) 1050oC, 0.07 mm
Fig.5 Grain orientation spread (GOS) diagrams of GH3600 nickel-based superalloy strips with different thicknesses after annealing at 800oC (a) 0.25 mm (b) 0.125 mm (c) 0.07 mm
Fig.6 Bound contrast (BC) + grain boundry (GB) overlap diagrams of GH3600 nickel-based superalloys strips with different thicknesses treated at different annealing temperatures (High angle grain boundaries are shown in red lines, twin boundaries are shown in green lines, and the low angle grain boundaries are shown in blue lines) (a) 800oC, 0.25 mm (b) 800oC, 0.125 mm (c) 800oC, 0.07 mm (d) 1050oC, 0.25 mm (e) 1050oC, 0.125 mm (f) 1050oC, 0.07 mm
Fig.7 Inverse pole figures (IPFs) of GH3600 nickel-based superalloys strips with different thicknesses treated at different annealing temperatures (TD—transverse direction, numbers at top right corner show the maximum pole densities) (a) 800oC, 0.25 mm (b) 800oC, 0.125 mm (c) 800oC, 0.07 mm (d) 1050oC, 0.25 mm (e) 1050oC, 0.125 mm (f) 1050oC, 0.07 mm
Fig.8 Engineering stress-strain curves of GH3600 nickel-based superalloy strips with different thicknesses at different annealing temperatures (a) 0.25 mm (b) 0.125 mm (c) 0.07 mm
Thickness / mm
800oC
900oC
1000oC
1050oC
0.25
39.5
38.4
37.1
38.4
0.125
21.3
25.7
17.8
20.7
0.07
13.3
12.3
10.2
5.4
Table 1 Elongations of GH3600 nickel-based superalloy strips with different thicknesses at different annealing temperatures
Fig.9 Low (a1-d1) and locally high (a2-d2) SEM images showing tensile fracture morphologies of 0.125 mm thick GH3600 nickel-based superalloy strips after annealing at 800oC (a1, a2), 900oC (b1, b2), 1000oC (c1, c2), and 1050oC (d1, d2)
Fig.10 Low (a1-d1) and locally high (a2-d2) SEM images showing tensile fracture morphologies of 0.07 mm thick GH3600 nickel-based superalloy strips after annealing at 800oC (a1, a2), 900oC (b1, b2), 1000oC (c1, c2), and 1050oC (d1, d2)
Fig.11 Grain size distributions of GH3600 nickel-based superalloys strips with different thicknesses treated at different annealing temperatures (D—average grain size) (a) 0.25 mm (b) 0.125 mm (c) 0.07 mm
T / D
Yield strength
Tensile strength
Elongation
MPa
MPa
%
9.1
430
636
13.3
3.5
366
564
10.2
1.9
344
438
5.4
Table 2 Variations of yield strength, tensile strength, and elongation of 0.07 mm thick GH3600 nickel-based superalloy strips with strip thickness/average grain size (T / D)
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