Abstract
Electromagnetic acoustic resonance (EMAR) is a contactless resonant method with an electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT). This method is free from extra energy losses, resulting in the measurement of intrinsic ultrasonic attenuation in solids. In this study, the EMAR was applied to detect the creep damage of a nickel-based super-alloy, Waspaloy. The material was exposed to the temperature of 1073K at various stresses. We measured ultrasonic attenuation for 1-6-MHz frequency range as the creep advanced. The attenuation coefficient exhibits much larger sensitivity to the damage accumulation than the velocity. It shows a maximum around 35-40% of the whole life, which is interpreted as resulting from microstructural changes, especially, dislocation mobility and coarsening ofγ'-precipitates. This is supported by SEM and TEM observations for the dislocation structure and γ'-precipitates. This technique has a potential to assess thp damage advance and to predict the creep life of metals.
