Microstructural evolution and creep of Fe-Al-Ta alloys

The microstructural evolution in Fe-Al-Ta alloys containing 23-31 at.% Al and 1.5-2.2 at.% Ta has been studied in the temperature range 650-750 degrees C by annealing for 1, 10, 100 and 1 000 h. The experiments confirm that in this temperature range the precipitation of the stable hexagonal C14 Laves phase is preceded by formation of coherent, metastable L2(1) Heusler phase precipitates within the Fe-Al matrix. However, precipitates of C14 are observed after much shorter annealing times than previously assumed. Creep strength increases substantially with increasing Al content of the alloys because the solid solubility for Ta in the Fe-Al matrix increases with increasing Al content and solid-solution hardening contributes substantially to the observed high creep strength. It may therefore be that the microstructural changes during creep have no noticeable effect on creep strength.