1. State Key Laborotory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China 2. School of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Xi'an Technological University, Xi'an 710021, China
Cite this article:
ZHANG Jun,JIE Ziqi,HUANG Taiwen,YANG Wenchao,LIU Lin,FU Hengzhi. Research and Development of Equiaxed Grain Solidification and Forming Technology for Nickel-Based Cast Superalloys. Acta Metall Sin, 2019, 55(9): 1145-1159.
Equiaxed grain cast superalloys are widely used in aeroengine and other fields due to their low manufacturing cost and excellent mechanical properties at medium and low temperatures. Aeroengine casing is a typical complex thin-walled equiaxed superalloy castings used at medium and low temperatures. The complex thin-walled superalloy investment castings with the complex structures, the accurate size and the lightweight are the key components for advanced aeroengines. The coordinated control of the precise forming and the solidification microstructure for these castings is very difficult. Correspondingly, the requirements for materials, casting technologies, structure controls and mechanical properties in superalloy integral structure castings are becoming increasingly higher. In this paper, the development and application of polycrystalline superalloys, solidification and forming, the simulations and the new technologies are reviewed.
Fund: Supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China(2016YFB0701400、2017YFB0702900);National Natural Science Foundation of China(51631008、51690163、51771148);Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(3102017ZY054、3102018JCC009)
Fig.1 Effects of pouring temperature and trace elements on fluidity of K4169 superalloy (Lf—fluidity length, Tp—pouring temperature)[14]
Fig.2 Temperature dependence of total structure factors curves of the Ni-Cr-W superalloy (Q—scattering vector, S(Q)—structure factor)[30]
Fig.3 The effect of melt superheating temperature on viscosity and surface tension of superalloy melt (σ—surface tension, ν—viscosity, T—temperature)[35]
Fig.4 Effect of melt superheating temperature on nucleation supercooling of K4169 superalloy[38]
Fig.5 The evolution of grain structure with the superheating temperature (Ts) (d—grain size)[38](a) 1380 ℃ (b) 1500 ℃ (c) 1550 ℃ (d) 1600 ℃ (e) 1680 ℃
Fig.6 Schematic of thermally controlled solidification process (a), grain structures (b) and microporosity (c)[14]
Fig.7 Macrostructures of IN100 superalloy obtained under the various refining processes[60](a) without, grain size: 3.45 mm(b) with 15 s lag time and 120 A current intensity, grain size: 0.44 mm(c) with 5 s lag time and 150 A current intensity, grain size: 0.16 mm(d) with inoculants, 5 s lag time and 150 A current intensity, grain size: 0.095 mm
Refiner
Crystal structure
a / nm
Alloy
Ref.
Co2AlO4
fcc
0.8130
IN713, K4169
[62]
NiAlTi
fcc
K4169, K403
[63]
TiN
fcc
0.4187
K403, K4169
[64]
TiB
fcc
0.4187
IN713, MAR-M246
[65]
WO2
fcc
Nimonic
[65]
Ni3Al
fcc
0.3561
IN718, IN713
[65]
NbC
bcc
0.4471
IN718, IN713
[65]
Ni-W-10Y2O3
bcc
1.060
Ni(Fe)-W
[66]
Table 1 The refiners used in superalloys[62,63,64,65,66]
Fig.8 The grain structures under different casting conditions[68](a) convention casting process, grain size: 4560 μm(b) convention casting with grain refiners, grain size: 1230 μm(c) thermally-controlled solidification process, grain size: 3340 μm(d) thermally-controlled solidification with grain refiners, grain size: 126 μm (convention casting: pouring temperature is 1380 ℃, mold temperature is 1290 ℃, withdrawal speed is 0 μm/s; thermally-controlled solidification: pouring temperature is 1380 ℃, mold temperature is 1290 ℃, withdrawal speed is 400 μm/s)
Fig.9 Orientation relationship between grain refiner and nickel grains and heterogeneous nucleation mechanism[69](a) simulated interface between the CrFeNb intermetallic particle and Ni grain(b) the superimposed atomic configuration on (111)Ni/(0004)CrFeNb
Fig.10 γ' evolution during tensile creep at 950 ℃ and 300 MPa obtained through phase-field simulation (t—time)[91]'(a) t=660 s (b) t=4620 s (c) t=132000 s (d) t=198000 s (e) t=231000 s (f) vertical section of Fig.10e obtained from (010) surface
Fig.11 Creep strain curve (a) and creep rate curve (b) at 950 ℃ and 300 MPa obtained through phase-field simulation[91]
Fig.12 Schematic illustration of the counter gravity low pressure inert-atmosphere melting and casting process (a), IN713C turbocharger wheel (b) and Haynes 230 high temperature probe (c)[95]
Fig.13 Applications of additive manufacturing in superalloy(a) turbine blade[103] (b) turbine blade repair[104] (c) GE aviation fuel nozzle[105]
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