Structural Integrity of an Electron Beam Melted Titanium Alloy

Advanced manufacturing encompasses the wide range of processes that consist of “3D printing” of metallic materials. One such method is Electron Beam Melting (EBM), a modern build technology that offers significant potential for lean manufacture and a capability to produce fully dense near-net shaped components. However, the manufacture of intricate geometries will result in variable thermal cycles and thus a transient microstructure throughout, leading to a highly textured structure. As such, successful implementation of these technologies requires a comprehensive assessment of the relationships of the key process variables, geometries, resultant microstructures and mechanical properties. The nature of this process suggests that it is often difficult to produce representative test specimens necessary to achieve a full mechanical property characterisation. Therefore, the use of small scale test techniques may be exploited, specifically the small punch (SP) test. The SP test offers a capability for sampling miniaturised test specimens from various discrete locations in a thin-walled component, allowing a full characterisation across a complex geometry. This paper provides support in working towards development and validation strategies in order for advanced manufactured components to be safely implemented into future gas turbine applications. This has been achieved by applying the SP test to a series of Ti-6Al-4V variants that have been manufactured through a variety of processing routes including EBM and investigating the structural integrity of each material and how this controls the mechanical response

On a Testing Methodology for the Mechanical Property Assessment of a New Low-Cost Titanium Alloy Derived from Synthetic Rutile

Mechanical property data of a low-cost titanium alloy derived directly from synthetic rutile is reported. A small-scale testing approach comprising consolidation via field-assisted sintering technology, followed by axisymmetric compression testing, has been designed to yield mechanical property data from small quantities of titanium alloy powder. To validate this approach and provide a benchmark, Ti-6Al-4V powder has been processed using the same methodology and compared with material property data generated from thermo-physical simulation software. Compressive yield strength and strain to failure of the synthetic rutile-derived titanium alloy were revealed to be similar to that of Ti-6Al-4V

Normalised model-based processing diagrams for additive layer manufacture of engineering alloys

Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) is becoming a more widely accepted method for the production of near net-shape products across a range of industries and alloys. Depending on the end application, a level of process substantiation is required for new parts or alloys. Prior knowledge of the likely process parameter ranges that will provide a target region for the process integrity can save valuable time and resource during initial ALM trials. In this paper, the parameters used during the powder bed ALM process have been taken from the literature and the present study to construct normalised process maps for the ALM process by building on an approach taken by Ion et al. in the early 1990's (J.C. Ion, H.R. Shercliff, M.F. Ashby, Acta Metallurgica et Materialia 40 (1992) 1539e1551). These process maps present isopleths of normalised equivalent energy density (E0*) and are designed to provide a practical framework for comparing a range of ALM platforms, alloys and process parameters and provide a priori information on microstructure. The diagrams provide a useful reference and methodology to aid in the selection of appropriate processing parameters during the early development stages. This paper also applies the methodology to worked examples of Tie6Ale4V depositions processed using different Electron Beam Melting parameters

Residual stress and texture control in Ti-6Al-4V wire + arc additively manufactured intersections by stress relief and rolling

Additively manufactured intersections have the theoretical risk to contain hydrostatic tensile residual stresses, which eventually cannot be thermally stress relieved. The stresses in Ti-6Al-4V wire + arc additively manufactured (WAAM) intersections are lower compared to single pass walls and stresses in continuous walls are larger compared to discontinuous walls with otherwise identical geometry. Thermal stress relief was found to virtually eliminate them. Inter-pass rolling can yield the desired grain refinement, without having any noteworthy influence on the development of residual stresses. The strain measurement itself by neutron diffraction is facilitated by the refined microstructure, because the otherwise textured microstructure produces anisotropic peak intensity, not allowing Pawley refinement. Without rolling, the {101¯1} and {101¯3} family of hcp planes are the only ones that diffract consistently in the three principal directions

The role of microstructure and local crystallographic orientation near porosity defects on the high cycle fatigue life of an additive manufactured Ti-6Al-4V

Titanium alloys such as Ti-6Al-4V built by most of the additive manufacturing processes are known to contain process induced defects, non-conventional microstructure and strong crystallographic texture; all of which can affect the fatigue strength. In this study we evaluated the effect of crystallographic orientation of α and α lath width around gas pore defects on the high cycle fatigue life of Wire + Arc Additive Manufactured Ti-6Al-4V by means of Electron Back Scattered Diffraction. Here we show that variations in crystallographic orientation of α lath and its width in the vicinity of the crack initiating defect were the main reasons for the considerable scatter in fatigue life. Pyramidal slip systems with high Schmid factor active around the defects resulted in longer fatigue life compared to pyramidal slip with lower Schmid factor. In the absence of pyramidal slip, cracks initiated from active prismatic slip systems. When considering the influence of the microstructure, a higher number of smaller α laths around the defect resulted in longer fatigue life, and vice versa. Overall, the fatigue crack initiation stage was controlled collectively by the complex interaction of porosity characteristics, α lath width and its crystallographic orientation at the crack initiation locatio

The effect of aluminium on twinning in binary alpha-titanium

The deformation mechanisms of binary Ti–Al model alloys (0–13.1 at.% Aluminium) have been investigated with respect to the twinning activity using in-situ loading in combination with neutron diffraction as well as detailed post mortem electron backscatter diffraction analysis. A consistent starting grain size and texture was generated for all alloys promoting tensile twinning during compression testing. Long-wavelength neutron diffraction and selected area diffraction transmission electron microscopy analysis were carried out to detect evidence of Aluminium ordering and Ti3Al formation.It was found that raising the Aluminium content in Titanium does first slightly enhance twinning, with {10View the MathML source2} tensile twinning being by far the dominant type, while the critical residual intergranular strains for twin initiation decreases. This suggests that either the lowering of stacking fault energy by Aluminium or its solute solution strengthening effect are important factors. At around 7 at.% Aluminium a turning point in twinning activity was noticed and a further increase in Aluminium did result in a dramatic loss of twinning activity particularly when the material had been exposed to an additional low temperature age. The dramatic decrease of twinning activity is strongly correlated with increasing evidence of short range ordering and also early signs of Ti3Al-formation in case of the highest Aluminium content. In addition, electron backscatter diffraction analysis revealed that the formation of Aluminium ordered zones do severely hinder growth of twin boundaries