Originally Posted by
tdracer
When things like grain boundary's become critical to the performance and life of the part.
Consideration of the chemical composition of the alloy being used when producing single crystal turbine blades should be determined and how it is managed. The choice is deciding to leave grain boundary strengthening elements in the single crystal alloy when producing single crystal blades or removing those elements completely simplifying the alloy composition. Leaving the strengthening element in the single crystal turbine blade can produce the strength of an equiax blade in the undetected grain boundary while providing additional time to detect the growing defect prior to failure.