Influence of Crystal Orientation on the Freckle Formation in Directionally Solidified Superalloys

Abstract

Freckle occurrence is known to be dependent on the casting size and the superalloy components with large cross section are more prone to freckle formation. In our directional solidification experiment of superalloys freckles are observed in some thin samples, while some significantly thicker samples in the same shell mould cluster remain freckle free. The EBSD analysis shows that the samples with freckles have a good <001> axial orientation, while in freckle free samples the primary dendrite stems diverge from the sample axis. In an analogue system the flow behaviour through a mushy zone was simulated, in which the dendrite network was placed in different orientation. The <001> dendrite array shows the lowest resistance to the vertical melt flow. As the dendrite alignment diverges from <001> orientation, the flow speed slows down and reaches the minimum at the <111> orientation. This orientation effect of the interdendritic permeability explains well why the crystal orientation plays such an important role in the occurrence of freckles in superalloy castings.