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For the repair of directionally solidified turbine components made of nickel-based superalloys, a new high-temperature brazing method has been developed. Utilising heterogeneous nucleation on the crack surface, the microstructure of the base material can be reproduced, i.e. single crystallinity can be maintained. In contrast to commonly used eutectic braze alloys, such as nickel-boron or nickel-silicon systems, the process is not diffusion controlled but works with a consolute binary base system. The currently applied epitaxial brazing methods rely on isothermal solidification diffusing the melting point depressants into the base material until their concentration is reduced so that the liquid braze solidifies. Contrary, the identified Ni-Mn consolute system enables a temperature driven epitaxial solidification resulting in substantially reduced process duration. The development of the braze alloys was assisted using the CALPHAD software Thermo-Calc. The solidification behaviour was estimated by kinetic calculations with realistic boundary conditions. Finally, the complete system, including braze alloy as well as substrate material, was modelled by means of DICTRA. Subsequently, the thermodynamic properties of the braze alloys were experimentally analysed by DSC measurements. For brazing experiments 300 μm wide parallel gaps were used. Complete epitaxial solidification, i.e. the absence of high-angle grain boundaries, could be achieved within brazing times being up to two orders of magnitude shorter compared to diffusion brazing processes. Theoretically and experimentally evaluated process windows reveal similar shapes. However, a distinct shift has to be stated which can be ascribed to the limited accuracy of the underlying thermodynamic databases. |
