Abstract des Vortrages: Titanium aluminide (TiAl) alloys are attractive lightweight materials for mediumtemperature (500°-750°C) structural applications including components such as jet engine and industrial gas turbine blades, turbocharger rotors and automotive engine valves. However, envisaged service temperatures for future advanced applications will have to be in the range of 750° to 1000°C, over which these alloys suffer from both oxidation and oxygen embrittlement. Therefore, development of surfaceengineering techniques for preventing high-temperature environmental damage is critical in exploiting the advantages of TiAl alloys to their fullest extent. Two efficient approaches to protecting candidate TiAl alloys from high-temperature (>750°C) environmental degradation have been developed at HZDR. The first technique involves a single step, namely treating TiAl alloy components directly by plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) of fluorine using a mixture of difluoromethane and argon (CH2F2 + 25% Ar) as the precursor gas. The oxidation performance of the fluorine-implanted alloys has been evaluated by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) over the temperature range of 750° to 1050°C under conditions of both isothermal and thermal cyclic oxidation in air, and for times as long as 6000 h. This type of surface modification has been shown to produce a stable, adherent and highly protective alumina scale. The second technique involves the fabrication of a durable protective coating in a two-step process, namely formation of a thin aluminum-rich TiAl layer (Ti-60Al) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) employing a mixture of inorganic precursors, followed by PIII of fluorine. Subsequent long-term oxidation exposures to air at 900°C of a GE 4822 alloy (Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb; alloy composition qualified for aerospace applications) have shown that the coating so developed is able to successfully prevent oxidation damage to the base material while maintaining up to 90% of its initial mechanical properties (strength and ductility).

Abstract des Vortrages: Titanium aluminide (TiAl) alloys are attractive lightweight materials for mediumtemperature (500°-750°C) structural applications including components such as jet engine and industrial gas turbine blades, turbocharger rotors and automotive engine valves. However, envisaged service temperatures for future advanced applications will have to be in the range of 750° to 1000°C, over which these alloys suffer from both oxidation and oxygen embrittlement. Therefore, development of surfaceengineering techniques for preventing high-temperature environmental damage is critical in exploiting the advantages of TiAl alloys to their fullest extent. Two efficient approaches to protecting candidate TiAl alloys from high-temperature (>750°C) environmental degradation have been developed at HZDR. The first technique involves a single step, namely treating TiAl alloy components directly by plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) of fluorine using a mixture of difluoromethane and argon (CH2F2 + 25% Ar) as the precursor gas. The oxidation performance of the fluorine-implanted alloys has been evaluated by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) over the temperature range of 750° to 1050°C under conditions of both isothermal and thermal cyclic oxidation in air, and for times as long as 6000 h. This type of surface modification has been shown to produce a stable, adherent and highly protective alumina scale. The second technique involves the fabrication of a durable protective coating in a two-step process, namely formation of a thin aluminum-rich TiAl layer (Ti-60Al) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) employing a mixture of inorganic precursors, followed by PIII of fluorine. Subsequent long-term oxidation exposures to air at 900°C of a GE 4822 alloy (Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb; alloy composition qualified for aerospace applications) have shown that the coating so developed is able to successfully prevent oxidation damage to the base material while maintaining up to 90% of its initial mechanical properties (strength and ductility).

γ-TiAl based alloys have attracted considerable research interest in the past few decades and have gained niche high temperature applications in aero-engines and automobiles. As high temperature structural materials, these alloys require stable microstructures. This thesis aims at addressing knowledge gaps in the understanding of microstructural stability in two technologically important γ-TiAl based alloys in different microstructures, viz. fully lamellar (FL) and duplex. Creep and exposure tests were complemented with a variety of microstructural characterization tools (SEM, EBSD, TEM, XRD). Density functional theory based calculations were also performed to further the understanding of stability of phases. In the first part of the thesis, microstructural stability of a FL microstructure was studied under creep and high temperature exposure conditions. An aim of these studies was to probe the effect of stress orientation with respect to lamellar plates on microstructural changes during primary creep. It was observed that retention of excess α2 resulted in an unstable microstructure and so under stress and temperature, excess α2 was lost. However, depending on stress orientation, the sequence of precipitates formed was different. In particular, for certain stress orientations, the formation of the non-equilibrium C14 phase was observed. The stress dependence of microstructural evolution was found to be stem from internal stresses due to lattice misfit and elastic moduli mismatch between α2 and γ. In the second part of this thesis, microstructural stability of a duplex alloy was probed, with an emphasis on understanding mechanisms that lead to tertiary creep. The as-extruded microstructure consisted of bands of equiaxed grains and lamellar grains. During creep, loss of lamellar grains was observed and this was attended by kinking of laths and formation of dynamically recrystallized equiaxed grains. Significant dislocation activity was seen in both lamellar and equiaxed grains at all stages of creep. Initially, dislocation activity leads to strengthening and primary creep behavior, but at later stages, it triggers dynamic recrystallization. Dynamic recrystallization was found to be the rate controlling creep mechanism. Accelerating creep behavior was due to strain localization during the constant load tensile test resulting from microstructural instabilities such as kinking.