Precipitation of icosahedral quasicrystalline phase, R-phase and Laves phase in ferritic alloys

Ferritic heat resistant steels involving precipitation of intermetallic phases have drawn a growing interest for the enhancement of creep strength, while the brittleness of the intermetallic phases may lower the toughness of the alloy. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the dispersion characteristics of the intermetallics phase through microstructural control to minimize the trade-off between the strength and toughness. The effects of alpha-Fe matrix substructures on the precipitation sequence, morphology, dispersion characteristics, and the stability of the intermetallic phases are investigated in Fe-Cr-W-Co-Si system. The precipitates of the Si-free Fe-10Cr-1.4W-4.5Co (at%) alloy aged at 873K are the R-phase but those of the Si-added Fe-10Cr-1.4W-4.5Co-0.3Si (at%) alloy are the icosahedral quasicrystalline phase. The precipitates in both the Si-free and Si-added alloys aged at 973K are the Laves phase. Matrix of the alloys is controlled by heat treatments as to provide three types of matrix substructures; ferrite, ferrite/martensite mixture and martensite. The hardening behavior of the alloys depends on the matrix substructures and is independent of the kinds of precipitates. In the alloys with ferrite matrix, the peak of hardness during aging at 873K shifts to longer aging time in comparison with that in the alloys with lath martensite matrix which contain numbers of nucleation sites.