Creep strength of centrifugally cast Al-rich TiAl alloys

High-temperature creep of a binary Al60Ti40 (at.%) alloy in the as-cast state and after annealing at 1223 K for 200 h which produced nearly lamellar γ-TiAl + r-Al2Ti microstructure was studied utilizing creep compression tests in a temperature range between 1173 and 1323 K in air. The material was manufactured by centrifugal casting. Microstructural characterization was carried out employing light-optical scanning (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) as well as X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses. It is shown that the alloy exhibits reasonable creep resistance at 1173 K, especially in relation to its low density of around 3.8 g/cm3. Stress exponents calculated as n = Δlog (strain rate)/Δlog (stress) = 4 were found to be relatively constant for the temperature and stress regime investigated. This indicates that dislocation climb may be the rate controlling creep mechanism. The assessment of creep tests conducted at identical stress levels and varying temperatures yielded activation energies for creep of around Q = 457 kJ/mol in the as-cast condition. This value is significantly higher than those found in literature for interdiffusion of Al or Ti in γ-TiAl. It is concluded that the difference is a due to the instability of the microstructure of the as-cast multi-phase alloy.