EBSD characterization of boundary types after discontinuous precipitation in a grit-blasted nickel-based superalloy

In the present work, direct and detailed insights with respect to the statistical information on boundary type of discontinuous precipitates and their advancing reaction fronts in a Re-containing single crystal superalloy DD6 have been obtained by EBSD. With the annealing time prolonging, the reaction fronts proceeded into the original matrix for gradual release of grit-blast induced stress. The average recrystallized grain diameter and the average depth of recrystallization were respective 0.83 μm and 3.98 μm for the specimen annealed at 1050 °C for 10 min, which, after 16 h, had grown to the average values of 3.22 μm and 31.17 μm. The reaction fronts of discontinuous precipitation have been confirmed to be high-angle grain boundaries, but do not always correspond to CSL type. Besides the role of strain energy dissipation for recrystallization, the formation of twin structure has no direct relationship with the proceeding of reaction fronts. The information of boundary type of discontinuous precipitation and its advancing reaction fronts would provide new insight into the cellular recrystallization behavior.