Study of the defect evolution of the GH4169 superalloy under electrostatic field

Abstract

An electrostatic field was applied to the GH4169 alloy during ageing, and the defect evolution process and mechanism were investigated using positron annihilation spectroscopy and vacuum inverted pendulum mechanical spectrometer. The results indicated that atomic thermal vibration and vacancy mobility can be increased by the electrostatic field treatment (EFT), resulting in the enhancement of vacancy formation. Under EFT, the relationship between atomic thermal vibration energy and the ageing temperature gives the E index, and there are more vacancies in the matrix with an increase in the ageing temperature. As the alloy was aged at 1073 K, the atomic thermal vibration energy displays the exponential growth with electric field intensity, contributing to an increase in the vacancy size and amount.