Two-phase microstructural evolution at high temperatures for γ'-richen single crystal superalloys

The two-phase microstructural evolution and the remained fractions of γ' were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) for a series of γ'-richen single crystal superalloys from the IC alloys system. At alloys IC31 and IC32, high levels of the dissolution of γ' cause the remarkable damages of two-phase microstructure, especially when the fraction drops to less than 45%, the γ' phase becomes sphere significantly and the two-phase interface distorts fairly. And the relationship between different degrading stages and the remained fractions are discussed systemically. The dissolution temperatures, Tsol, of IC alloys determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) are further considered. It is found that there is a good linear relationship between the Tsol and the remained fraction of the γ' at 1200°C and the slide keeps fixed as about 0?5%/°C. Meanwhile, the remained fraction of the γ' seems to play an important role on the mechanical properties, and a method with Tsol used to estimate the properties at 1200°C is proposed.