Effect of Heat Treatment on the Microstructural Evolution of a Nickel-Based Superalloy Additive-Manufactured by Powder Bed Fusion Laser Sintering

Published

June 15, 2018

Author(s)

Fan Zhang, Lyle E. Levine, Andrew J. Allen, Mark R. Stoudt, Greta Lindwall, Eric Lass, Maureen E. Williams, Yaakov S. Idell, Carelyn E. Campbell

Abstract

Elemental segregation is a ubiquitous phenomenon in additive-manufactured (AM) parts due to solute rejection and redistribution during the rapid solidification process. Using electron microscopy, in situ synchrotron X-ray scattering and diffraction, and thermodynamic modeling, we reveal that in an AM nickel-based superalloy, Inconel 625, unwanted δ-phase precipitates grow on a much shorter time scale than in wrought alloys (hours versus hundreds of hours). The root cause for this behavior is localized elemental segregation that results in local compositions outside the bounds of the allowable range set for wrought alloys. Our in situ small angle scattering experiments reveal that platelet-shaped δ phase precipitates grow continuously and preferentially along their lateral dimensions during stress-relief heat treatment, while the thickness dimension reaches a plateau very quickly. No nucleation barrier was observed in the in situ XRD experiments. An activation energy for the growth of δ phase was found to be (131.04 ± 0.69) kJ mol-1. We further demonstrate that a subsequent homogenization heat treatment can be effective both in homogenizing the AM alloy and in removing the deleterious δ phase. The methodology established here can be extended to elucidate the phase evolution during heat treatments in a broad range of AM materials.

Citation

ACTA Materialia

Volume

152

Pub Type

Journals

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DOI Link

Keywords

additive manufacturing, metal, kinetics, phase evolution, precipitates, synchrotron, X-ray scattering, X-ray diffraction, in situ

Citation

Zhang, F. , Levine, L. , Allen, A. , Stoudt, M. , Lindwall, G. , Lass, E. , Williams, M. , Idell, Y. and Campbell, C. (2018), Effect of Heat Treatment on the Microstructural Evolution of a Nickel-Based Superalloy Additive-Manufactured by Powder Bed Fusion Laser Sintering, ACTA Materialia, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2018.03.017 (Accessed March 13, 2025)