Mössbauer study of turbine blade steels

Mössbauer investigations were carried out on low carbon steels containing 12–13.5% Cr and 3–5% Ni in order to get information about the reason of cracking and fracture which take place during the use of turbine blade wheels. The quantity of retained austenite determined from the Mössbauer spectra of steels was low (<1%) in the cracked and fractured basic materials. Comparing this value with those being considerable in quenched (≈11%) as well as in annealed state (≈5%) of the same sample, we can conclude that the transformation of the austenite taking place during the working of turbine blade wheel can be associated with the cracking and the fracture. We found an anomalous increase of the quantity of the austenite in steel samples (quenched from different temperature between 700 and 1000 °C and aged at 450–600 °C) aged again at 450–550 °C. On the basis of the evaluation of Mössbauer spectra of the steels, information can be obtained about the changes in the concentration of alloying elements being in martensite at the various heat treatments.