Effect of Pre-Stretching on Residual Stresses and Microstructures of Inconel 718 Superalloy

The residual stress generated in a superalloy during heat treatment affects the subsequent processing of the workpiece and may even adversely affect its performance. This paper investigates the effects of pre-stretching (in the range from 0% to 9%) before aging treatment on residual stress generated during quenching process and microstructure of Inconel 718 superalloy. After pre-stretching treatment, the residual stress deriving from quenching process can be well reduced. When the pre-stretch level was 3%, the quenching residual stress reached a maximum reduction of 72%, and the strength increased by 7.1%, while the product of strength and elongation hardly changed. Simultaneously, the microstructures of the pre-stretched specimens are observed by electron back scatter diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was found that the fraction of high-angle grain boundaries in the alloy decreased while that of low-angle grain boundaries increased with increasing pre-stretch level. As the pre-stretch level was further increased to 9%, the proliferating entanglement of internal dislocations in the specimen was intensified, resulting in rod-shaped gamma '' precipitates coarsening and volume fraction reduction of precipitates, which further led to a reduction in the product of strength and elongation of material.