Alloy Design and Properties of Ni based Superalloy LESS 1: I. Alloy Design and Phase Stability at High Temperature

The alloys required for fossil power plants are altered from stainless steel that has been used below 600oC to Ni-based alloys that can operate at 700oC for Hyper Super Critical (HSC) steam turbine. The IN740 alloy (Special Metals Co. USA) is proposed for improved rupture strength and corrosion resistance at high temperature. However, previous studies with experiments and simulations on stable phases at about 700oC indicated the formation of the eta phase with the wasting of a gamma prime phase, which is the most important reinforced phase in precipitation hardened Ni alloys, and this resulted in the formation of precipitation free zones to decrease the strength. On the basis of thermodynamic calculation, the new Ni-based superalloy named LESS 1 (Low Eta Sigma Superalloy) was designed in this study to improve the strengthening effect and structure stability by depressing the formation of topologically close packed phases, especially sigma and eta phases at high temperature. A thermal exposure test was carried out to determine the microstructure stability of LESS 1 in comparison with IN740 at 800oC for 300 hrs. The experimental results show that a needle-shaped eta phase was formed in the grin boundary and it grew to intragrain, and a precipitation free zone was also observed in IN740, but these defects were entirely controlled in LESS 1.