The effect of strong magnetic field treatment on microstructure and room temperature compressive properties of NiAl–Cr(Mo)–Hf eutectic alloy

The Ni–33Al–28Cr–6Mo–0.2Hf (at.%) eutectic alloy was treated in a 10 T strong magnetic field at 1073 K, 1173 K and 1273 K for 1 h, respectively. Microstructure examination reveals that after the strong magnetic field treatment, Heusler particles (Ni2AlHf) along eutectic cell boundaries distribute more uniformly, and moreover most Heusler particles have changed into Hf solid solution. In addition, after strong magnetic field treatment at 1173 K and 1273 K, the original eutectic cellular morphology is changed greatly; Cr(Mo) plates become spheroidizing and trend to align to the direction of strong magnetic field. The compression tests show that room temperature compressive ductility of the alloys with strong magnetic field treatment improves significantly, compared with the heat-treated alloy. The fracture characteristics change from debonding into transgranular cleavage, which indicates that the cohesion of grain boundaries get significant improvement.