Effect of Initial Particle Size on Coarsening Kinetics of γ′ Precipitate in Nickel-Based Superalloy-A Phase Field Study

The effect of initia gamma' particle size on coarsening kinetics of gamma' precipitates in Nickel-based superalloys has been studied by means of phase field method which takes into account the lattice misfit. The simulation shows that the gamma' precipitate morphology at the late stage of coarsening is independent of initial particle size, and the rectangle-like precipitates dominate the matrix which is in good agreement with experimental studies. The coarsening exponent increases with initial size, while the coarsening rate constant exhibits no apparent regularity. Although the coarsening trend is independent of initial particle size, the precipitate size increases with initial size at a given aging time. Through precipitate size distribution calculation, it is found that the size distribution is fairly stable, which is not sensitive to the initial particle size.