Morphology evolution of γ′ precipitates in a powder metallurgy Ni-base superalloy

Highlights: • The 3-D morphology of the γ′ precipitate for the Ni-base superalloy was characterized using the electronic etching. • Various morphologies of the γ′ precipitates, including cuboids, octet and dendritic shape, were observed. • Cooling rate has a significant influence on the morphology of the γ′ precipitate. • When the cooling rate was lower than 6 °C/min, the dendritic shape γ′ with eight-primary-branch pattern was observed. - Abstract: Effect of the cooling rate on the morphological evolution of the γ′ precipitate in a powder metallurgy Ni-base superalloy FGH96 was studied. Results showed that as the cooling rate decreased from 600 °C/min to 2 °C/min, the precipitate morphology transformed from sphere to cuboid, octet and dendrite. As the cooling rate increased, the mean size of the γ′ precipitates decreased while the nucleation density increased. When the cooling rate was lower than 6 °C/min, the precipitate would evolve from a sphere to cuboids with concave faces, octets, dendrite to final split-off branches. The morphological transition was driven by energy balance between coherent strain induced by the γ′/γ lattice misfit and interface energy. The dendritic shape γ′ exhibited an eight-primary-branch pattern with preferred growth direction along <111>, and secondary arms along <100>.