Design of a novel crack-free precipitation-strengthened nickel-based superalloy and composites for laser powder bed fusion

Abstract

Avoiding cracking defects is crucial to ensuring processability in the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) of metallic materials. In this study, a crack-free Ni-based superalloy with a high volume fraction of the γ′ phase was designed for the LPBF process using the thermodynamic approach. The results indicate that the designed SD01 Ni-based alloy was crack-free and over 21% of the spherical γ′ phase was uniformly distributed in the matrix after heat treatment. In addition, 1 wt.% TiB2 particles were introduced into the SD01 alloy to further enhance high-temperature mechanical performance. It was found that the morphology of the γ′ phase was altered from spherical to cubic structures, and its volume fraction increased from 21% to 40% after the TiB2 addition. The SD01-TiB2 composite exhibited an excellent combination of tensile strength (437.43 MPa) and elongation (7.71%) at 900 °C compared with the SD01 alloy (252.03 MPa, 3.02%). These findings provide a new metallic material design method for the LPBF of crack-free high-performance Ni-based materials.