Hot Deformation Behavior and Workability of a New Ni-W-Cr Superalloy for Molten Salt Reactors

doi:10.1007/s40195-024-01701-4

Abstract

Abstract:

The hot deformation behavior of a newly developed Ni-W-Cr superalloy for use in 800 °C molten salt reactors (MSRs) was looked into by isothermal compression tests in the temperature range of 1050-1200 °C with a strain rate of 0.001-1 s⁻¹ under a true strain of 0.693. An Arrhenius-type model for the Ni-W-Cr superalloy was constructed by fitting the corrected flow stress data. In this model, the effect of dispersion of solid solution elements during thermal deformation on microstructure evolution was considered, as well as the effects of friction and adiabatic heating on the temperature and strain rate-dependent variation of flow stresses. The hot deformation activation energy of the Ni-W-Cr superalloy was 323 kJ/mol, which was less than that of the Hastelloy N alloy (currently used in MSRs). According to the rectified flow stress data, processing maps were created. In conjunction with the corresponding deformation microstructures, the flow instability domains of the Ni-W-Cr superalloy were determined to be 1050-1160 °C/0.03-1 s⁻¹ and 1170-1200 °C/0.001-0.09 s⁻¹. In these deformation conditions, a locally inhomogeneous microstructure was caused by flow—i.e., incomplete dynamic recrystallization and hot working parameters should avoid sliding into these domains. The ideal processing hot deformation domain for the Ni-W-Cr superalloy was determined to be 1170-1200 °C/0.6-1 s⁻¹.

Key words: Ni-W-Cr Superalloy, Hot deformation behavior, Constitutive equation, Processing map, Microstructure evolution

Long Liu, Zijian Zhou, Jie Yu, Xinguang Wang, Chuanyong Cui, Rui Zhang, Yizhou Zhou, Xiaofeng Sun. Hot Deformation Behavior and Workability of a New Ni-W-Cr Superalloy for Molten Salt Reactors[J]. Acta Metallurgica Sinica (English Letters), 2024, 37(8): 1453-1466.

Figures/Tables 13

Table 1 Chemical composition of the Ni-W-Cr superalloy (wt%)

Ni	W	Cr	Si + Mo	Mn	C
Bal	25-30	5-8	1.0-1.5	0.5-1.5	0.03-0.08

Fig. 1 Microstructure of the alloy a before and b after homogenization, c and d inverse pole figure (IPF) and TEM images of the deformed alloys, respectively

Fig. 2 Schematic diagram of a the hot compression test and process parameters, b morphology before and after deformation and the cutting method, and c section subareas and observation position

Table 2 Parameters used in Eq. (5)

ρ (kg·m⁻³)	C_p (J·kg⁻¹·K⁻¹)	K_w (W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹)	K_D (W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹)	HTC (W·m⁻² ·K⁻¹)	l_D (m)
10,500	339	8.41	21	25,000	0.012

Fig. 3 Stress-strain curves of Ni-W-Cr superalloy under different deformation conditions: a 0.001 s−1, b 0.01 s−1, c 0.1 s−1, and d 1 s.−1

Fig. 4 Linear fitting relationships of the constitutive equation of the Ni-W-Cr superalloy

Fig. 5 Activation energies of the Ni-W-Cr superalloy, pure Ni, and other superalloys [31,32,33,34,35]

Fig. 6 Comparison of the experimental peak stress values and the values predicted by the constitutive equation

Fig. 7 Cubic spline fitting curves between a ${\text{ln}}\overline{\sigma }$ and ${\text{ln}}\dot{\varepsilon }$ and b ${\text{ln}}\left[m/\left(m+1\right)\right]$ and ${\text{ln}}\dot{\varepsilon }$

Fig. 8 Processing map of the Ni-W-Cr superalloy at a true strain of 0.693

Fig. 9 Microstructure of Ni-W-Cr superalloy at a true strain of 0.693

Fig. 10 Typical organization of the six regions in the hot working map of the Ni-W-Cr superalloy

Fig. 11 Schematic diagram of hot working of the Ni-W-Cr superalloy at a true strain of 0.693

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