Superalloys: An Introduction with Thermal Analysis
Nickel based superalloys are commonly used materials in the aero industry and more specifically in the hot section of aero engines. These nickel and nickel iron based superalloys are precipitation strengthened alloys with a face centered cubic gamma matrix. Alloy 718, Allvac 718Plus and Waspaloy have been of great interest in the present study. Alloy 718 is a precipitation strengthened nickel-iron based alloy having gamma double prime phase (Ni3Nb) as a main strengthening phase up to 650 °C. Waspaloy, another precipitation strengthened nickel base superalloy, has a very good strength at temperatures up to ~750 °C whereas Allvac 718Plus is a newly developed nickel based precipitation strengthened superalloy which retains good mechanical properties at up to ~700 °C. These three alloys were investigated in terms of how their respective solidification process reveals upon cooling.Latent heat of soloidification has been estimated for all three alloys. Differential thermal analyses (DTA) have been used to approach the task. It was seen that Waspaloy has the smallest solidification range whereas Allvac 718Plus has the largest solidification interval in comparison.
