DENDRITIC GROWTH AND CRYSTALLINE QUALITY OF NICKEL-BASE SINGLE GRAINS

It is a usual observation that subgrains exist in nickel-base single grain components solidified by the lost wax process. The associated misorientations are generally small, but they can eventually lead to casting defects in the case.of highly complex mold shapes. This work presents an attempt to relate the formation of subgrain boundaries with the development of the dendritic solidification microstructure. Experimental investigations have been undertaken on cast components made of AM1 nickel-base superalloy designed for high temperature turbine blades. Single grains were obtained by means of a grain selector at the bottom of each part. Metallographic observations have been made to characterize the dendritic array, together with gamma diffraction to measure the crystalline quality of the material and X-ray topography for mapping of misorientations on a dendritic scale. Small misorientations between dendrite stems have been found at the upper end of the selector which lead to the formation of subgrains. Moreover, during the growth process, the total mosaicity of the material increases, firstly as a consequence of an increase in the misorientations between subgrains, and secondly because of a decrease of the internal quality of each subgrain. It is proposed that misorientations are due to thermomechanical stresses which build up during gamma' precipitation at temperatures slightly below the solidus temperature of the alloy.