No abstract

In order to understand the composition of the Nb-Mo bcc phase suitable to introduce B2-NiAl phase for the improvement of oxidation resistance as an Al reservoir layer for maintaining Al2O3 surface layer, a NiAl-Nb-Mo section of the quaternary Al-Nb-Ni-Mo phase diagram is studied. It is found that the ternary τ2 phase appears in wide composition range of alloys, both the hardness and cracking tendency decreases with increasing the Mo concentration of the alloys.

Synopsis :Better balance of strength and toughness is a strong demand for the ASTM A707 L5 grade steel. In the present study, therefore, the combination of hardening by Cu precipitates and toughening by quenching from a dual-phase (α+γ) region, so-called intercritical quenching or lamellarizing, has been investigated for a better balance of strength and toughness. The combination procedure resulted in a drastic increase in toughness at low temperatures with a slight decrease in yield strength.The lamellarizing brought about a complicated microstructure with meandered high angle grain boundaries (HAGB) and fine grains bordered by the HAGB. The final microstructure was composed of granular bainitic ferrites without retained γ and basically dual of a softer phase and a harder phase. The softer phase inherited the not-transformed α phase region in lamellarizing and contained coarse Cu precipitates. The harder phase inherited the transformed γ phase region in lamellarizing and contained no Cu precipitates. Hence, over-aging of Cu precipitation in the softer phase might result in the slight decrease in yield strength. In the present steel, the retained γ has nothing to do with the improved toughness. Hence, the effective grain size (d EFF ) approach was verified to account for the microstructural effect on toughness. The unit microstructure to determine the d EFF was identified to be the bainitic ferrite grain bordered by the HAGB. The refinement of the d EFF through lamellarizing can be attributed to the improved toughness.

The development of a new high temperature structural material is recently required in various fields. As one of the potential materials, Nb-Si alloys have attracted attention due to their high melting point and low density. A microstructure composed of ductile Nb matrix containing finely dispersed spherical Nb5Si3 phase is obtained by the addition of ternary elements such as Au and it is found that such microstructure is effective in improving room temperature toughness. The main purpose of the present study is evaluating fracture toughness of Nb-Si-Au alloys using small specimens and investigating the effects of the microstructure and other minor elements on the fracture toughness. Alloy ingots of Nb-15at.%Si-3at.%Au and Nb-3at.%Au are prepared by arc-melting under Ar atmosphere, followed by heat-treatments at up to 1500oC for 100 hours. Chevron notched specimens with a size of 1.0x2.0x10mm are subjected to four-point bending tests under a laser confocal microscope for in-situ observation of crack propagation, and the effect of the microstructure and minor elements such as oxygen on the evaluated fracture toughness is investigated on both the Nb/Nb5Si3 alloys and the Nb solid solution (Nbss) alloys.