Effects of alloying elements on creep of TiAl alloys with a fine lamellar structure

Creep experiments were conducted on five powder-metallurgy TiAl alloys with fine grains (65–80 μm), fine lamellar spacings (0.1–0.16 μm), and different compositions Ti–47Al (+Cr, Nb, Ta, W, Si)] at temperatures of 760°C and 815°C and stresses from 35 to 723 MPa. Results show that at a given lamellar spacing, replacing 1% Nb (atomic percent) with 1% Ta and replacing 0.2% Ta with 0.2% W induced little effect, but addition of 0.3% Si decreased the creep resistance by a factor of 3–4 under otherwise identical conditions. Field emission TEM was used to characterize the changes of microstructure and alloy element distribution before and after creep. It was found that thinning and dissolution of α₂ lamellae and continuous coarsening of γ lamellae were the main creep processes and the microalloying elements tended to segregate at lamellar interfaces, especially at ledges during creep. The effects of different alloying elements are interpreted in terms of the interaction of alloy segregants with misfit and/or misorientation dislocations at the lamellar interface. That is, the interaction retards the climb of interfacial dislocations and thus the creep process in the case of large segregants (Nb, Ta, W), but facilitates the climb and creep in the case of small segregants (Si).