Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2011
Commercially useful multiphase alloy Inconel 783 is made up of Ni(28%), Fe(25%), and Co(35%) with smaller amounts of Cr, Al, Nb, Mo, Ti, C, and Si. In this work, relative temperature variations of the lattice constants a(T)/a0 of the gamma (face-centered-cubic) and beta (body-centered-cubic) phases of this alloy are determined from 97 to 773 K using analyses of their x-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. Plots of a(T)/a0 for the two phases vary from 1.0 at 97 K to 1.012 at 773 K and show that (i) for T = 500 K, thermal expansion of the β phase is larger than that of the = phase; and (ii) an abrupt jump is observed near 300 K. The appearance of new lines above 700 K in XRD representing Co2CrO4 and CoCr2O4 is interpreted in terms of the oxidation of the γ phase, whereas the β phase is oxidation resistant. The anomalous change in a(T)/a0, observed near 300 K and accompanied by a similar change in the temperature variation of the initial magnetic susceptibility, is not well understood. A brief discussion on the implications of these results is presented.