Effects of Solid Solution Strengthening Elements Mo, Re, Ru, and W on Transition Temperatures in Nickel-Based Superalloys with High gamma'-Volume Fraction: Comparison of Experiment and CALPHAD Calculations

We prepared 41 different superalloy compositions by an arc melting, casting, and heat treatment process. Alloy solid solution strengthening elements were added in graded amounts, and we measured the solidus, liquidus, and gamma'-solvus temperatures of the samples by DSC. The gamma'-phase fraction increased as the W, Mo, and Re contents were increased, and W showed the most pronounced effect. Ru decreased the gamma'-phase fraction. Melting temperatures (i.e., solidus and liquidus) were increased by addition of Re, W, and Ru (the effect increased in that order). Addition of Mo decreased the melting temperature. W was effective as a strengthening element because it acted as a solid solution strengthener and increased the fraction of fine gamma'-precipitates, thus improving precipitation strengthening. Experimentally determined values were compared with calculated values based on the CALPHAD software tools Thermo-Calc (databases: TTNI8 and TCNI6) and MatCalc (database ME-NI). The ME-NI database, which was specially adapted to the present investigation, showed good agreement. TTNI8 also showed good results. The TCNI6 database is suitable for computational design of complex nickel-based superalloys. However, a large deviation remained between the experiment results and calculations based on this database. It also erroneously predicted gamma'-phase separations and failed to describe the Ru-effect on transition temperatures.