Dissolution kinetics and morphological changes of γ′ in AD730^TM superalloy

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, École de technologie supérieure (ETS), H3C 1K3, Montreal, QC, Canada
² Institute Pprime, UPR CNRS 3346, Physics and Mechanics of Materials Department, ISAE- ENSMA, 86961 Chasseneuil Cedex, France

^a Corresponding author: Fatemeh.Masoumi.1@ens.etsmtl.ca

Abstract

Alloy AD730^TM is a recently developed Nickel base superalloy for application as turbine disk in modern gas turbines with improved thermal efficiency. Ingot casting followed by open die-forging and then heat treatments are the main manufacturing steps for the production of parts made of this alloy. Solution heat treatment operations are applied at different stages of the manufacturing in order to ease the deformation processing and/or prepare the microstructure for final heat treatment. In this research, the influence of various solution heat treatment schedules on morphology and distribution of the γ′ phase are investigated and documented. The obtained results will contribute to a better understanding of microstructure evolution of AD730^TM during solution heat treatments. Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA) is used for the purposes of measurement of temperatures of phase transformations of the alloy. Based on DTA results, three solutionizing temperatures and three holding times were selected for performing and assessing the solution heat treatment process. Optical and electron microscopy were used to study the morphological evolution as well as the coarsening and dissolution of secondary phases at solvus and subsolvus temperatures. The results indicated that precipitate agglomeration and Ostwald ripening are the governing mechanisms during the initial stages and splitting and partial dissolution of γ′ precipitates takes place during subsolvus solution treatments.