Advanced Polycrystalline γ′-Strengthened CoNiCr-Based Superalloys

Abstract

Novel compositionally complex CoNiCr-based superalloys with excellent mechanical properties have been developed, which combine the multiprincipal element nature of high-entropy alloys with the precipitation strengthening in superalloys. A series of advanced polycrystalline γ′-strengthened CoNiCr-based superalloys, called CoWAlloys, with varying contents of Al, W, Ti, Ta, Mo, and Nb are investigated in terms of microstructure, thermophysical properties, yield, and creep strength. The microstructure of all CoWAlloys consists of an fcc solid solution matrix phase (approximate γ composition in at. pct: 50Co–20Ni–20Cr–10X (X = other alloying elements)), which is strengthened by a multicomponent γ′ (Ni,Co)3(Al,Ti,Ta,W,Nb)-based precipitate phase with a very high-volume fraction of around 60 vol pct (approximate γ′ composition in at. pct: 45Ni–30Co–25X). These alloys have high solidus temperatures above 1300 °C and moderate γ′ solvus temperature between 985 °C and 1080 °C leading to a large processing window. The increasing content of γ′-forming elements Ti, Ta, W, and Nb decreases this window, but increases the γ/γ′ lattice misfit and the anti-phase boundary energy, which contribute to a significantly higher yield and creep strength. Their properties are discussed in comparison with conventional polycrystalline Ni-base superalloys and so-called L12-strengthened high-entropy alloys, revealing that the creep strengths of the CoWAlloys are significantly higher. This is due to the reduced strain rate sensitivity of the CoWAlloys due to different underlying deformation mechanisms: By increasing the anti-phase boundary energy, a transition to stacking fault shearing and microtwinning occurs, which leads to the enhanced creep strength. Based on these results, guidelines and strategies for the design of next-generation advanced high-temperature polycrystalline superalloys are proposed. Graphical Abstract