Dislocation dynamics analysis to elucidate the mechanism of stacking fault strengthening in Nickel-based superalloy

  • Hirano, Atsuo (Tokyo University of Science)
  • Nonoyama, Ko (Tokyo University of Science)
  • Takahashi, Akiyuki (Tokyo University of Science)

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Nickel-based superalloy is a useful material for high-temperature structural applications such as turbine blades because of its high strength under high temperatures. It has numerous γ’ precipitates (Ni3Al) in a γ matrix (Ni), which hinder dislocation motions, resulting in a high strength. Therefore, investigating the interaction between dislocations and γ’ precipitates is crucial to elucidate the mechanism of strengthening in Nickel-based superalloys. In this study, we focused on the stacking fault strengthening, which derives from the difference in the stacking fault energies of γ and γ’ phases. The dislocation core model is a useful method to simulate the effect of several phases on dislocation motions accompanied by stacking faults in the dislocation dynamics method. However, it requires a high computational cost because it needs a lot of fractional dislocations to express the displacement around the dislocations. In addition, dislocations in γ’ phases are usually superdislocations, and each is resolved into four partial dislocations, which leads to a very high computational cost and an unstable calculation. Therefore, we employed the low computational method called localized dislocation core model that we had developed previously. We calculated the critical resolved shear stress (CRSS) that is required for dislocations to pass through γ’ precipitates in a γ matrix for various sizes and channel widths of precipitates. We found that a smaller channel width led to a high CRSS, which is consistent with the observations [6]. We also discussed the mechanism behind the relationship between CRSS and these factors. Moreover, we simulated the effect of γ phases inside γ’ precipitates on CRSS. Our result indicates that their effects is not larger compared to γ’ precipitates.