Experimental and Theoretical Analysis of Scanning Laser Epitaxy Applied to Nickel-Based Superalloys

This paper reports on the experimental development and the theoretical analysis of the scanning laser epitaxy (SLE) process that is currently being investigated and developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology. SLE is a laser-based manufacturing process for deposition of equiaxed, directionally solidified and single-crystal nickel superalloys onto superalloy substrates through the selective melting and re-solidification of superalloy powders. The thermal modeling of the system, done in a commercial CFD software package, simulates a heat source moving over a powder bed and considers the approximate change in the property values for consolidating CMSX-4 nickel superalloy powder. The theoretical melt depth is obtained from the melting temperature criteria and the resulting plots are presented alongside matching experimental micrographs obtained through cross-sectional metallography. The influence of the processing parameters on the microstructural evolution, as evidenced through observations made from the micrographs, is discussed.This work is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, through grants N00173-07-1-G031 and N00014-10-1-0526.Mechanical Engineerin