The Design and Research of a New Low Cobalt-molybdenum Niobium-containing Ni-base Superalloy for 700 ̊C Advanced Ultra-supercritical Power Plants ☆

A new Ni-base Nb-containing supealloy of low Co-Mo, Ni-24Cr-16(Co+Mo+W)-4.5(Nb+Ti+Al)-0.03C (wt. %), was designed for 700°C advanced ultra-super-critical power plant application, and the boiler superheater/reheater tubes were successfully manufactured. The alloy design was conducted by thermodynamics and dynamics calculation using Thermal-Calc and JmatPro commercial software. The microstructural stability of the new alloy was evaluated by FESEM and TEM. The mechanical properties, such as microhardness and impact toughness at room temperature, were also tested. The calculation results show that molybdenum promotes the formation of σ and μ phase obviously and cobalt promotes the formation of η, σ, and μ simultaneously. In addition, high molybdenum content will decrease the flue gas ash corrosion resistance and cobalt is a kind of strategic resource in the world. Therefore, the concept of “low Co-Mo Ni-base superalloy” was determined. The implementation of “Low Co-Mo” can reduce cost, restrain the formation of harmful phases as well as ensure good oxidation/corrosion resistance on the basis of high Cr content. To optimize the new alloy, both the combined solid solution strengthening of Cr-Co-Mo-W and the precipitation strengthening elements Nb, Ti and Al are adopted, because Nb is a good γ’-strengthening element in combination with Ti and Al for Ni-base superalloy. The experimental results of SEM and TEM show that no harmful phases precipitate after 1000 h-aging at 760°C and 800°C, and the γ′ coarsening rate is low, which reveals a good microstructure stability of this new alloy.