J. M. Vitek, S. A. David, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN; S. S. Babu, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; J. W. Park, Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co, Suwon, Kyunggi-Do, South Korea; Y. Hu, W. F. Hehmann, Honeywell Aerospace Services, Greer, SC

Summary: Laser welding using a powder deposition process was carried out on a commercial nickel-based single crystal superalloy (Rene N5). Two different weld geometries and three different filler metals were used. The welds were examined metallographically to assess the extent of cracking in the welds. It was found that the number and size of cracks increased with increasing amounts of γ' in the filler metal. It was also found that cracking was much more prevalent in the groove geometry than in the cladding configuration. The dominance of transverse cracks fits agrees with limited stress analyses that indicated longitudinal stresses are the dominant stresses formed during welding in the configurations examined in this work.