Hot Deformation Behaviour and Processing Map of Cast Alloy 825

Alloy 825 is a nickel-based alloy that is commonly used in applications where both high strength and corrosion resistance are required. Applications include tanks in the chemical, food and petrochemical industries and oil and gas pipelines. Components made from Alloy 825 are often manufactured using hot deformation. However, there is no systematic study to optimise the processing conditions reported in literature. In this study, a processing map for as-cast Alloy 825 is established to maximise the power dissipation efficiency of hot deformation and correlate the processing conditions to final materials properties. The hot deformation behaviour of equiaxed Alloy 825 is characterized on the basis of the dynamic materials model and compression data in the temperature range of 950 °C to 1250 °C at an interval of 50°C and strain rate range of 0.01 s-1 to 10 s-1 to a true strain of 0.7 using a Gleeble-3500 thermomechanical simulator. Flow stress is modelled by the constitutive equation based on a hyperbolic sine function. The deformed material is characterized using Vickers hardness, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, including electron backscattered diffraction. The true stress-true strain curves exhibit peak stresses followed by softening due to occurrence of dynamic recrystallization. The value of stress exponent in the hyperbolic sine-based constitutive equation, n=5.0. This suggests that the rate-limiting mechanism of deformation is climb (diffusion)-mediated dislocation glide. The activation energy for plastic flow in the temperature range tested is about 450 kJ mole-1, and the relationship between flow stress and temperature-compensated strain rate (via the Zener-Hollomon parameter) was found to be valid across this temperature range. The maximum power dissipation efficiency is over 35%. The highest efficiency is observed over temperature range of 1100 °C – 1250 °C and a strain rate of 0.01 s-1 – 0.1s-1. These are the optimum conditions for hot working. The optimum processing parameters for ...