Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

Aircraft engine and component maintenance, repair and overhaul activities in the Canadian aerospace sector generate over $3 billion in annual revenues. The ability to produce γ’ precipitation strengthened Cobalt-based superalloys with higher melting temperatures has raised the possibility that these materials could out-perform and replace some of the currently used Nickel-based superalloys in next generation gas turbine engines for aerospace and power generation applications. Nevertheless, to adequately exploit the vast potentials of these newly emerging superalloys it is imperative to perform intensive research on the applicability of advanced joining techniques during manufacturing and repair of damaged engine components made from these materials. Unfortunately, the advancements that have occurred over the past four decades on the development of high temperature alloys have not been adequately matched with the development of appropriate joining techniques for these advanced materials.

The proposed research will use extensive state-of-the-art electron microscopy and spectroscopy techniques combined with numerical and physical simulations to study and develop viable procedures to laser weld newly developed γ’ precipitation strengthened Co-based superalloys without the problems of cracking and the formation of damaging micro-constituents that plague welding of γ’ strengthened superalloys. Furthermore, this work will attempt to develop, for the new superalloys, an efficient method to reduce the protracted processing time that has been a major barrier to industrial application of another technique, transient liquid phase bonding, which is suitable for advanced difficult-to-weld materials. The proposed research will contribute crucial new knowledge that will advance our understanding of how to effectively and efficiently join components made of the newly emerging superalloys during manufacture and repair of aircraft and power generation engines.

The research will help train and equip at least 8 HQP with crucial skills that are vital to the use of experimental and theoretical techniques in analyzing and solving practical engineering problems in the industry as well as in the academia, including microscopy and spectroscopy analyses combined with numerical modeling and simulation. The research has the potential to directly benefit the aerospace industry, which is a leading employer and top exporter of advanced technology in Canada, and constitutes a key component of the country’s economy.
Besides aerospace applications, the skills to be acquired by the HQP are pertinent to other crucial industrial sectors of the economy including automotive and energy.