The interaction of reaction-bonded silicon carbide and inconel 600 with a nickel-based brazing alloy

The objective of the present research was to join reaction-bonded silicon carbide (RBSC) to INCONEL 600 (a nickel-based superalloy) for use in advanced heat engine applications using either direct brazing or composite interlayer joining. Direct brazing experiments employed American Welding Society (AWS) BNi-5, a commercial nickel-based brazing alloy, as a filler material; composite interlayers consisted of intimate mixtures of α-SiC and BNi-5 powders. Both methods resulted in the liquid filler metal forming a Ni-Si liquid with the free Si in the RBSC, which, in turn, reacted vigorously with the SiC component of the RBSC to form low melting point constituents in both starting materials and Cr carbides at the metal-ceramic interface. Using solution thermodynamics, it was shown that a Ni-Si liquid of greater than 60 at. pct Ni will decompose a-SiC at the experimental brazing temperature of 1200 ‡C; these calculations are consistent with the experimentally observed composition profiles and reaction morphology within the ceramic. It was concluded that the joining of RBSC to INCONEL 600 using a nickel-based brazing alloy is not feasible due to the inevitability of the filler metal reacting with the ceramic, degrading the high-temperature properties of the base materials.