On the Effects of the Rejuvenation Treatment on Mechanical and Microstructural Properties of IN-738 Superalloy

The main scope of this paper is to show the effects of a specific rejuvenation treatment studied for IN-38 on both the microstructure and the mechanical properties of the creep-damaged superalloy and to compare the tests results with the virgin material and with the recovery obtained through the standard heat treatment. This work will show that this rejuvenation treatment is able to recover the microstructure of creep-damaged specimens and that the creep and tensile properties of the rejuvenated alloy are even better than the virgin material for the tests performed. Moreover, it will be shown that the standard heat treatment provided for IN-738 is not able to fully recover the microstructure and that the creep properties of the superalloy during the tests have been lower than the virgin material.