Degradation of creep properties in a long-term thermally exposed nickel base superalloy

When exposed for long time at elevated temperatures of 430 and 650 °C the nickel base superalloy EI 698 VD can experience a significant decrease in creep resistance. The cause of the creep degradation of nickel base superalloy is generally attributed to the microstructural instability at prolonged high temperature exposure. In this article, the creep-life data, generated on long thermally exposed nickel base superalloy EI698 VD were related to the local microstructural changes observed using SEM and TEM analysing techniques. While structure analysis provided supporting evidence concerning the changes associated with grain boundary carbide precipitation, no persuasive evidence of a morphological and/or dimensional gamma prime change was showed. For clarifying of the role of gamma prime precipitates on alloy on creep degradation, the SANS (small angle neutron scattering) experiment was crucial in the characterization of the bulk-averaged gamma prime morphology and its size distribution with respect to the period of thermal exposure.