Homogenization During Solution Heat Treatment of Ni-Base Single-Crystal Superalloy TMS-238

To maximize the mechanical properties of Ni-base superalloys, solution heat treatment is essential to sufficiently homogenize the dendritic segregations formed during solidification. To investigate the homogenization behavior during solution heat treatment, a Ni-base single crystal superalloy, TMS-238, was heat treated under various conditions; temperatures ranging from 1573 to 1613 K for times ranging from 2 to 100 h. After solution heat treatment, the average concentrations of Re, an element that exhibits the highest degree of segregation, in dendrite core and inter-dendritic regions were analyzed. From these results, apparent diffusion constants, D_app, were determined based on a proposed homogenization model. Obtained D_app values were significantly smaller than the diffusion constant of Re in Ni, strongly suggesting that the apparent diffusion coefficients should be obtained experimentally when using the target alloy.