Internal stress superplasticity in the NiAl–Mo eutectic alloy Original Research Article

Internal stress superplasticity (ISS) in a NiAl–Mo based eutectic alloy was investigated by conducting thermal cycling creep tests. The alloy was annealed at high temperatures to spheroidize the refractory metal phase. Under thermal cycling creep conditions, the alloy exhibited characteristics of ISS, that is, at low stresses, the thermal cycling creep rates were much higher than the isothermal creep rates and the corresponding stress exponent was close to 1. These results were compared quantitatively with the predictions of a theoretical model of ISS. The experimental thermal cycling creep rates agreed with the predicted values within an error less than one order of magnitude. Superplastic elongation of >200% without fracture was attained during a thermal cycling tensile creep test.