Nickel-Based Superalloys

For over eight decades now, superalloys have provided the most reliable and cost-effective means to meet the operation requirement of high temperature and stress for aeroengine and industrial gas turbine. Nickel-based superalloys achieve the highest temperature and stress combination performance among all kinds of superalloys, making them ideal for the most demanding applications, such as critical component of turbine disk and blade. This article presents an overview on nickel-based superalloys and summarizes their current research and application. The topics cover composition, phases and microstructures, metallurgical principles of various strengthening, processing methods including melting, casting, forging, heat treating, powder metallurgy and thermal barrier coating. It also describes the principles and processes of component production with different metallurgical methods, including an upcoming technology of additive manufacturing. The development trends of nickel-based superalloys and some potential alternative metallic materials with higher temperature capacity beyond nickel-based superalloys are prospected.