Mechanisms of Tensile and Creep Deformation at Elevated Temperatures in a Ni-Base Superalloy Alloy 263

The tensile and creep behaviors of Alloy 263, which is a wrought Ni-base superalloy used for gas turbine combustion systems, was studied. Anomalous increase of yield strength and abrupt decrease of elongation with increasing temperature were observed after tensile testing at an intermediate temperature. Elongation of the superalloy decreased as the temperature increased to and above 540 degrees C, and it reached a minimum value at 760 degrees C. It was found that creep strain was also very low at the same temperature. Inhomogeneous deformation with intensive slip bands was observed in the specimens tested at low temperature. A thermally-assisted dislocation climb process was regularly conducted at high temperature. Twinning was found to be an important mechanism of both tensile and creep deformations of the superalloy at an intermediate temperature where ductility minimum was observed.