Directional Solidification Behavior of CMSX-6 Superalloy

Abstract

The directional solidification behavior of a first generation single crystal superalloy CMSX-6 was investigated. The solidification rate range in 25μm/s to 100μm/s and a thermal gradient G of 30K/cm were used for the present study. The experimental results show that the primary dendrite arm space (PDAS) decreased from (432±8) μm to (369±4) μm as the solidification rate increased, and the sizes of the eutectic pools also decreased as the solidification rate increased. And the volume fractions of eutectic γ/γ' were about 7% to 9% with different solidification rate. The γ/γ'- eutectic was comprised with coarse γ' phase and fine γ/γ' network. The morphology of the γ/γ’ eutectic supported the possibility that the solidification of γ/γ’ eutectic initiates with the formation of fine γ/γ’.