High resolution orientation mapping of secondary phases in ATI 718Plus® alloy

Abstract

The polycrystalline superalloy ATI 718Plus ® (hereafter 718Plus) has been developed to replace the established alloy Inconel 718 by offering higher temperature capability for applications in gas turbines. The alloy exhibits two secondary phases in the austenitic matrix; it is strengthened by the γ′-phase with η-phase discontinuously precipitated at the grain boundaries. It can be utilized to control grain growth during forging. Generally, hexagonal η phase has been reported to possess a defined crystallographic orientation with the matrix. However, the material studied here exhibits blocky η-phase that has been precipitated and grown during thermo-mechanical processing. Therefore a measurable change in orientation relationship is expected. The standard technique for orientation mapping is electron back-scattered diffraction with spatial resolution of 100 nm. That is insufficient for studying η-phase in 718Plus. By applying high resolution orientation mapping in the transmission electron microscope (Philips CM 300 FEGTEM) equipped with a Nanomegas ASTARTM system a resolution of 3 nm was achieved. The indexed diffraction data was analysed using the Matlab Toolbox Mtex. The analysis included grain reconstruction and exclusion of low confidence measurements. The data set allows generating phase boundary maps indicating interfaces characteristics. Quantitative assessment shows that only 19% of the γ-η-interfaces fulfil the orientation relationship.