Nageswara Rao Muktinutalapati

By Nageswara Rao Muktinutalapati

Part of the book: Advances in Gas Turbine Technology

By Manikandan Manoharan, Arivazhagan Natarajan and Nageswara Rao Muktinutalapati

Microsegregation occurs during solidification of fusion zone in alloy C-276. The concomitant precipitation of topologically close-packed phases P and μ has been reported to be responsible for the hot cracking observed in this alloy during welding. The clue to preventing hot cracking hence lies in suppressing microsegregation in the fusion zone. An important avenue towards this is the introduction of current pulsing during gas tungsten arc welding. Current pulsing was found to be effective in mitigating microsegregation; it was also found to refine the microstructure in the weld zone and improve the mechanical behavior of weld joints. Judicious choice of filler wire is of paramount importance to get weld joints free from segregation and with a good combination of mechanical properties. Joints made using arc welding methods were found to be highly resistant to corrosion in salt spray tests. Non-arc-based methods—laser welding and electron beam welding—were found to be effective in largely keeping the microsegregation at bay. This chapter elaborates on these issues.

Part of the book: Superalloys

By Nageswara Rao Muktinutalapati, Arivazhagan Natarajan and Moganraj Arivarasu

The coal-based power plants have been plagued by twin problems—low thermal efficiency and emission of high level of pollutants into the environment. Over the last few decades, attention was paid by researchers worldwide to overcome these problems and to design, build, and operate coal-based plants with improving efficiency levels and reducing emission levels. Operating the power plants with higher levels of steam temperature and pressure was adopted as the direction toward achieving the needed improvements. The requirement to operate the plants with increasingly higher levels of temperature and pressure made it necessary to design the components with superalloys. Hot corrosion then becomes a major design consideration, particularly for superheaters and reheaters. Thus, it becomes important to study the hot corrosion behavior of candidate superalloys. The present chapter attempts to review the work done over the last two decades to understand the hot corrosion behavior of superalloys in the context of their use in advanced coal-based power plants.

Part of the book: Superalloys for Industry Applications

By Sudhagara Rajan Soundararajan, Jithin Vishnu, Geetha Manivasagam and Nageswara Rao Muktinutalapati

The unique combination of attributes—high strength to weight ratio, excellent heat treatability, a high degree of hardenability, and a remarkable hot and cold workability—has made beta titanium alloys an attractive group of materials for several aerospace applications. Titanium alloys, in general, possess a high degree of resistance to biofluid environments; beta titanium alloys with high molybdenum equivalent have low elastic modulus coming close to that of human bone, making them particularly attractive for biomedical applications. Bulk processing of the alloys for aerospace applications is carried out by double vacuum melting followed by hot working. There have been many studies with reference to super-solvus and sub-solvus forging of beta titanium alloys. For alloys with low to medium level of molybdenum equivalent, sub-solvus forging was demonstrated to result in a superior combination of mechanical properties. A number of studies have been carried out in the area of heat treatment of beta titanium alloys. Studies have also been devoted to surface modification of beta titanium alloys. The chapter attempts to review these studies, with emphasis on aerospace and biomedical applications.

Part of the book: Titanium Alloys

By Sudhagara Rajan Soundararajan, Jithin Vishnu, Geetha Manivasagam and Nageswara Rao Muktinutalapati

Heat treatment of metastable beta titanium alloys involves essentially two steps—solution treatment in beta or alpha+beta phase field and aging at appropriate lower temperatures. High strength in beta titanium alloys can be developed via solution treatment followed by aging by precipitating fine alpha (α) particles in a beta (β) matrix. Volume fraction and morphology of α determine the strength whereas ductility is dependent on the β grain size. Solution treatment in (α + β) range can give rise to a better combination of mechanical properties, compared to solution treatment in the β range. However, aging at some temperatures may lead to a low/nil-ductility situation and this has to be taken into account while designing the aging step. Heating rate to aging temperature also has a significant effect on the microstructure and mechanical properties obtained after aging. In addition to α, formation of intermediate phases such as omega, beta prime during decomposition of beta phase has been a subject of detailed studies. In addition to covering these issues, the review pays special attention to heat treatment of beta titanium alloys for biomedical applications, in view of the growing interest this class of alloys have been receiving.

Part of the book: Welding