Hot Deformation Behavior of Incoloy 901 Through Hot Tensile Testing

Hot deformation tests were conducted on cast and wrought Incoloy 901 produced by electro-slag remelting at temperatures of 950-1150 °C and strain rates of 0.01-1 s⁻¹. Both materials showed acceptable hot workability in the studied range of temperature and strain rates. However, better workability of the wrought material was associated with easier dynamic recrystallization compared to in the cast material. A complete dynamic recrystallization in the wrought material was observed at temperatures above 1100 °C. On the other hand, in the cast material that was characterized by a coarse grain structure, dynamic recrystallization occurred partially and was attributed to the low density of grain boundaries. It was recognized that in order to avoid the risk of premature fracture, hot processing of the studied material should be conducted in the temperature range of 1000-1100 °C. At high temperatures, over 1100 °C, both materials suffered from a lack of acceptable hot workability. Rather, the wrought material showed a slight hot ductility trough around 1050 °C that could be attributed to the segregation of detrimental solute atoms such as S and P to the grain boundaries. The grain boundary decohesion was controlling the fracture mechanism of the wrought material. Due to the absence of extensive DRX in the cast material, the incipient melting, void formation, and decohesion of precipitates were found responsible for the final fracture.