FURI | Fall 2019

Thermal Creep Resistant Nickel Super Alloys with Nontraditional Alloying Elements

Nickel-based super alloys are useful because of their ability to maintain their mechanical properties at elevated temperatures. The goal of the project is to study the effects of yttrium and zirconium as alloying elements in nickel because of their potential to increase strength and stabilize microstructure. So far, alloys have been created for Ni-Y, Ni-Zr, and Ni-Y-Zr in a tri-arc furnace and characterized by Vickers hardness and compression testing as well as scanning electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction. Results show a significant increase in strength in the alloys over pure nickel. Future work includes microstructural stability and creep resistance studies.