Effect of Mn on microstructure of as-cast Ti47A18Nb(1～2)Mn alloys

The microstructures of Ti47Al8NbxMn (mole fraction, %) alloy with x=1 or 2 were studied on as-cast, as-HIPped and on heat-treated samples. The results showed that Mn element is β phase stabilizer and promotes the formation of β(B2) phase. B2 phase exists at the dendrite cores of the as-cast microstructures. This phase is metastable and can completely decompose into α and(or) γ during 1200℃, 200MPa, 4h HIP process. In the as-HIPed alloy with 1% (mole fraction) Mn addition, the α2+γ lamellae structure is interrupted and decomposed resulting in grain refined near gamma microstructure. The α2+γ lamellae structure near interdendritic regions decomposes almost completely into γ grains, but near dendrite cores incompletely into γ grains with a small amount of α2 particles or needles around or in it. However, compared with the alloy with 1% (mole fraction) Mn, more α2 phase is retained in the alloy with 2% (mole fraction) Mn. α2 phase contains more Mn and is more stable in the alloy with 2% (mole fraction) Mn than in that with 1%(mole fraction) Mn. This makes its grain refinement more difficult. The amount of α2 phase decreases following (1250℃, 7h-1150℃, 15h) for 3 cycles heat treatment.     

Fatigue properties of a medium-strength γ-TiAl alloy with different surface conditions

Effects of surface condition on fatigue properties of a medium-strength γ-TiAl alloy Ti-45Al-5Nb-lW(at%) were investigated.It is found that the maximum stresses of fatigue samples are lower than the yield stresses of the medium-strength γ-TiAl alloy.Meanwhile,the local plastic deformation is unconspicuous to occur at the crack tip.In this case,the fatigue strength is mainly decided by surface conditions of maximum-stressed surface,but compressive stress and deformation especially resulted from shot peening play an important role in the improvement of the condition fatigue strength.The affecting depth of shot peening is about 250 μm.As a result,the relatively weak microstructures and phases become the preferential initiation sites and propagation routes.They are observed to be equiaxed γ grains,B2 + ω grains,and α_2-γ lamellar interface in soft orientations.The existence of V-notch can significantly reduce the fatigue properties of the samples.     

Turning machining induced microstructural stability of a high Nb-containing TiAl alloy during high temperature exposure

Turning machining induced microstructural instability was investigated in a fully lamellar Ti-45Al-8.5Nb-(W,B,Y) alloy during high temperature exposure.After turning machining followed by thermal exposure at900 or 1000℃ for 100,300 and 500 h,a depth-dependent gradient microstructure with random orientations was produced in the region close to the machining surface.Two typical layers,a fine-grained(FG) layer with equiaxed grains and a coarse-grained(CG) layer with elongated grains,are formed in this region in transversal direction.The thickness of the two layers is up to 120 urn after thermal exposure at 1000℃ for 500 h,which is less than the depth of the hardened region(200 μm) after turning machining.Most of the new grains in FG and CG layers are constituted of γ single phase,while short α_2 segments and few B2 particles are precipitated at the γ/γ interface or inside the γ grains.Recrystallization and phase boundary bulging are found to be the major mechanisms responsible for lamellar degradation in FG layer and CG layer,respectively.The residual deformation energy stored is considered to be the main driving force of this process.     

Effect of deformed microstructure on mechanical properties of Ti-22Al-25Nb alloy

Effect of the deformed microstructure on mechanical properties of an orthorhombic （Ti2klNb） based alloy of Ti-22Al-25Nb （mole fraction, %） has been investigated. It was found that the deformed microstructures in different portions of a flee forged rod with diameter of 30 mm were quite different and thus resulted in the different mechanical properties after the same subsequent heat-treatment. One deformed microstructure with less primary α2/O particles and a larger and equiaxed B2 grains resulted in poor RT ductility, but the other one with a relatively larger amount of the primary α/O particles and non-equiaxed B2 grains had good combination of the tensile strength and ductility both at RT and 650 ℃. It was also found that two different deformed microstructures were obtained for the hot rolling plates with thickness of 3 mm even processed under an identical nominal rolling and the same post-deforming heat treatment conditions. One only has 3.5% of RT tensile elongation and the other up to 8%.     

Effect of Mn on microstructure of as-cast Ti47A18Nd(1-2)Mn alloys

The microstructures of Ti47A18NbxMn(mole fraction,%)alloy with x=1 or 2 were studied on as-cast,as-HIPped and on heat-treated samples.The results showed that Mn element is β phase stabilizer and promotes the formation of β（B2）phase.B2 phase exists at the dendrite cores of the as-cast microstructures.This phase is metastable and can completely decompose into α and (or)γ during 1200℃,200MPa,4h HIP process.In the as-HIPed alloy with 1%(mole fraction)Mn additin,the α2 r lamellae structure is interrupted and decomposed resulting in grain refined near gamma microstructure.The α2 γ lamellae structure near interdendritic regions decomposes almost completely into γ grains,but near dendrite cores incompletely into γ grains with a small amount of α2 particles or needles around or in it.However,compared with the alloy with 1%(mole fraction)Mn,more α2 phase is retained in the alloy with 2%(mole fraction)Mn,α2 phase contains more Mn and is more stable in the alloy with 2%(mole fraction)Mn than in that with 1%(mole fraction)Mn.This makes its grain refinement more difficult.The amount of α2 phase decreases following(1250℃,7h-1150℃，15h)for 3 cycles heat treatment.     

Research on lamellar structure and micro-hardness of directionally solidified Sn-58Bi eutectic alloy

In this work,the Sn-58Bi(weight percent) eutectic alloy was directionally solidified at a constant temperature gradient(G = 12 K.mm-1) with different growth rates using a Bridgman type directional solidification furnace.A lamellar microstructure was observed in the Sn-58Bi samples.The lamellar spacing and micro-hardness of longitudinal and transversal sections were measured.The values of lamellar spacing of both longitudinal and transversal sections decrease with an increase in growth rate.The microhardness increases with an increase in the growth rate and decreases with an increase in the lamellar spacing.The dependence of lamellar spacing on growth rate,and micro-hardness on both growth rate and lamellar spacing were obtained by linear regression analysis.The relationships between the lamellar spacing and growth rate,microhardness and growth rate,and micro-hardness and lamellar spacing for transversal and longitudinal sections of Sn-58Bi eutectic alloy were given.The fitted exponent values obtained in this work were compared with the previous similar experimental results and a good agreement was obtained.     

Effect of cooling rate and forced convection on as-cast structure of 2205 duplex stainless steel

To forecast the as-cast structure and ferrite-austenite phase ratio of 2205 duplex stainless steel(DSS), the effects of cooling rate and forced convection were observed in a high-vacuum resistance furnace in which the forced convection was created by the rotation of the crucible. The as-cast structure of all 2205 DSS samples is full equiaxed grains, and the microstructure consists of a great amount of desirable intra-granular austenite inside the continuous ferrite grain matrix, besides Widmanstatten austenite and grain boundary austenite. The ferrite grain size decreases gradually with the increase in the cooling rates(20 to 60 oC·min-1) or the forced convection, while the ferrite grains of the samples solidified with a strong convection are barely changed when the cooling rate is below 50 oC·min-1. Moreover, a small grain size is beneficial for the austenite formation but the influence is not very obvious under the cooling rates in the range of 5 to 50 oC·min-1. Compared with grain size, the cooling rate has a greater influence on the final ferrite content. A model based on the experimental results is established to predict the ferrite content, which could be approximated by δ(%) = 20.5·exp(c/80.0) + 0.34 d +34.1, where cis the cooling rate in oC·min-1 and d is the grain size in mm. By using this model, the dependence of the final ferrite content on cooling rate and grain size is well described.     

Grain refinement in a cast high Nb containing TiAl alloy by heat treatment

The grain refmement of an as-cast Ti-46Al-8.5Nb-0.2W (atom fraction in %) alloy by the cyclic heat treatments was studied. The heat treatment scheme included a tempering at 1250℃ and cyclic tempering at 1000 and 1200℃ three times after solution treatment at the temperature above α phase transus followed by immediate fan cooling. The fine and homogeneous near-γ microstructure can be obtained by this heat treatment, which causes the breakdown of as-cast microstructure and prevents the anomalous growing of originalγ phase.     

Microstructure and mechanical properties of high strength as—cast Ti—15—3 alloy

The effects of heat treatment and solidification cooling rate on the microstructure and mechanical properties of as-cast Ti-15-3 alloy prepared by induction skull melting method were investigated.Results show that the microstructure of as-cast Ti-15-3 alloy changes from the features of simplified and larger size of beta grains to finer grain size with increasing solidification cooling rate.After solution treatment and different ageing treatment,alpha phase precipitates in grains interior as well as in grain boundaries.Due to the modification of the precipitate phase,the tensile stength and elongation of the alloy are improved simultaneously.A good combination of the values of 1.406GPa of σb and 4.5% of δ was obtained,which will be satisfied the use of this kind of alloy in critical areas.     

Effect of cooling rate on solidification structure and linear contraction of a duplex stainless steel

Cooling rate is a key factor that can drastically affect the phase transformation and thermal stress of duplex stainless steels. Therefore, in this research, different sand moulds were used to explore the influence of cooling rate on the solidification of the 2304 duplex stainless steel (DSS). The macro and micro structures of the 2304 DSS were investigated. Small equiaxed grains are obtained in chromite sand mould sample with a lower pouring temperature and a higher cooling rate, whereas coarse columnar and equiaxed grains are found in silica sand and refractory powder mould samples. The size of austenite phase is significantly increased with decreasing cooling rate, while the ferrite phase content ranging from 51.6% to 53.9% does not change obviously. In addition, the linear contraction of the 2304 DSS decreases from 2.34% to 1.09% when the mean cooling rate above 1,173 K increases from 0.99 K·s-1 to 3.66 K·s-1.     

Transformation mechanism of lamellar microstructure of AZ80 wrought Mg alloy during warm deformation

The microstructure especially the lamellar second phase evolution by a combination of deformation and heat treatment for AZ80 alloy was investigated.The results show that there are finer lamellar Mg_(17)Al_(12) phases after hot compression with the increasing strain,while there are coarse lamellar discontinuous precipitation cells ofβ-Mg_(17)Al_(12) phase spreading from the grain boundaries into the grains after T6 treatment of the compressed samples.The lamellar morphologies especially the lamellar dist...     

Phase fraction evolution in hot working of a two-phase titanium alloy: experiment and modeling

In the present work, the coupled effects of initial structure and processing parameters on microstructure of a two-phase titanium alloy were investigated to predict the microstructural evolution in multiple hot working. It is found that microstructure with different constituent phases can be obtained by regulating the initial structure and hot working conditions. The variation of deformation degree and cooling rate can change the morphology of the constituent phases, but do not alter the phase fraction. The phase transformation during heating and holding determines the phase fraction for a certain initial structure. β-α-βtransformation occurs during heating and holding.β to αtransformation leads to a significant increase in content and size of lamellar α. The α to β transformation occurs simultaneously in equiaxed α and lamellar α. The thickness of lamellar a increases with temperature, which is caused by the vanishing of fine α lamellae due to phase transformation and coarsening by termination migration. By assuming a quasi-equilibrium phase transformation in heating and holding,a modeling approach is proposed for predicting microstructural evolution. The three stages of phase transformation are modeled separately and combined to predict the variation of phase fraction with temperature.Model predictions agree well with the experimental results.     

Hot Deformation Behavior and Microstructural Characteristics of Ti–46Al–8Nb Alloy

Hot deformation behavior,microstructural evolution and flow softening mechanism were investigated in Ti–46Al–8Nb alloy via isothermal compression approach.The true stress–strain curves exhibited typical work hardening and flow softening,in which the dependence of the peak stress on temperature and strain rate was obtained by hyperbolic sine equation with Zener–Hollomon(Z)parameter,and the activation energy was calculated to be 446.9 k J/mol.The microstructural analysis shows that the alternate dark and light deformed ribbons of Al-rich and Nb-rich regions appeared and were associated with local flow involving solute segregation.The Al segregation promoted flow softening mainly arising from the recrystallization of γ phase with low stacking fault energy.The coarse recrystallized γ and several massive γ phase were observed at grain boundaries.While in the case of Nb segregation,β/B2 phase harmonized bending of lamellae,combined with the growth of recrystallized γ grains and α+β+γ→α+γ transition under conditions of temperature and stress,leading to the breakdown of α_2/γ lamellar colony.During the hot compression process,gliding and dissociation of dislocations occurred in γ phase that acted as the main softening mechanism,leading to extensive c twins and cross twins in α/γ lamellae and at grain boundaries.In general,homogeneous microstructure during the hot deformation process can be obtained in Ti Al alloy with high Nb addition and low Al segregation.The deformation substructures intrinsically promote the formability of Ti–46Al–8Nb alloy.     

Microstructures of an AlSi7Mg alloy by near-liquidus casting

Semi-solid ingots of an AlSi7Mg alloy were obtained using the method of near liquidus casting. Their micro- structures exhibit the characteristics of fine, equiaxed, and non-dendrite, which are required for semi-solid forming. The in- fluences of casting temperature, heat preservation time, and cooling rate on the microstructure were also investigated. The results show that in the temperature region near liquidus the grain size becomes small with a decrease in casting temperature. Prolonging the heat preservation time makes grain crassitude at the same temperature. And increasing the cooling rate makes grain fine. The microstructure of the alloy cast with iron mould is finer than that with graphite mould.     

Microstructure and fatigue crack growth behaviour of electron beam welding in 30CrMnSiNi2A steel

The effects of two post-weld heat treatment processes on the microstructure and fatigue properties of the electron beam welded joints of 30CrMnSiNi2A steel were studied. Electron beam local post-weld heat treatment ( EBLPWHT) , in a vacuum chamber, immediately after welding and a traditional furnace whole post-weld heat treatment (FWPWHT) were accepted. The experimental results show that, after EBLPWHT, the main microstructure of weld is changed from coarse acicular martensite into lath martensite, and base metal is changed from ferrite and perlite into upper bainite and residual austenite, however the microstructures of different zones of joints in FWPWHT conditions are tempered sorbite. The fatigue crack growth rate da/dN of welds and base metal are not obviously changed among EBLPWHT, FWPWHT test and as-welded (AW) test, as the mechanical properties of materials have a certain but not large effect on the da/dN of welded joints. The resistance to near threshold fatigue crack growth data of welded joints can be largely improved by EBLPWHT and it is related to microstructure and crack closure effect.     

Effect of Heat Treatment on Microstructures and Properties of Near-Isothermally Forged TiAl Alloy Containing Minor Ni

The heat treatment, including two steps, was proposed to obtain Fine Fully Lamellar (FFL) microstructure on TiAl containing minor Ni. The first step was in t (α γ) phn~se region to get Duplex (DP) microstructure, and the second step was in α phase region transforming DP microstructure into FFL microstructure. The effect of heat treatment on microstructures and properties was sludied. The results showed that the static recrystallization kinetics in i (α γ) phase region took the form of Avrami equitation, and the remnant lamellae in DP microstructure were detrimental to room temperature tensile properties. The FL microstructures were obtained after heat treatment in α phase region using DP microstructure, the uniform FFL microstructure wns beneficial to comprehensive properties.     

Microstructural evolution,tensile property and dynamic compressive property of FSWed Ti-6Al-4V alloy

Friction stir welding was applied to Ti-6 A1-4 V plates with 5 mm in thickness.The microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated.A full lamellar microstructure was developed near the top surface,and the size of prior β grain gradually decreases as the distance from the top surface increases.The microstructure of the bottom is fine equiaxed a grains,and the mean size is2 μm.A mixture microstructure consisting of primary a,lamellar α+β and fine equiaxed α is discovered in thermomechanically affected zone(TMAZ).Results of transverse tensile test show that the tensile strength of the joint reaches 98% that of the base material(BM).Quasi-static compression test shows that the joint exhibits larger compressive strength and failure strain than the BM.Dynamic compressive strength of the joint is close to that of the BM;furthermore,the strain at the peak stress and energy absorption of the joint are larger than those of the BM.     

Influences of Cooling Rate After Solution Treatment on Microstructural Evolution and Mechanical Properties of Superalloy Rene 80

Influences of the cooling rate after solution treatment on microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of Rene 80 nickel-based superalloy were investigated by optical microscopy,scanning electron microscopy,transmission electron microscopy and mechanical test.Results showed that the high cooling rate decreased the size of secondary γ′particles in the supersaturated matrix,but led to a high coarsening rate of γ′ particles during subsequent aging treatment.Despite various coarsening rates,the size and morphology of γ′ particles in the final microstructures of all samples were close due to the long enough holding time to an equilibrium state.During the aging of 870 ℃/2 h,primary MC started to decompose with the carbide reaction:MC + γ→ M_6C or M_(23)C_6 + γ′.And a number of observations showed that the coarsening of γ′ particles on grain boundaries resulted in the depletion of γ′ during aging treatment.The test results indicated that high cooling rate resulted in the presence of quench crack,and the air cooling method following solution treatment was an optimum heat treatment method for Rene 80.     

Microstructure characterization and tensile properties of a Ni-containing TiAl-based alloy with heat treatment

The effects of Ni addition on solidification micro structure and tensile properties of Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb alloy were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry(DSC),X-ray diffraction(XRD),scanning electron microscopy(SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive spectroscope(EDS) and transmission electron microscopy(TEM).Results show that with 3 at%Ni addition,the as-cast micro structure is mainly composed of fine lamellar colonies(~50 μm),γ grains and Ni-ridied τ_3 phase.After heat treatment at 1380℃,the Ni-containing alloy is characterized by fine fully lamellar micro structure(~90 μm).The heat-treated Ni-containing specimen exhibits superior room temperature tensile properties than other specimens.The tensile properties are discussed in light of the microstructure evolution and role of Ni-riched τ_3 phase.     

Cooling γ precipitation behavior and strengthening in powder metallurgy superalloy FGH4096

Two cooling schemes (continuous cooling and interrupted cooling tests) were applied to investigate the cooling γ precipitation behavior in powder metallurgy superalloy FGH4096.The effect of cooling rate on cooling γ precipitation and the development of γ precipitates during cooling process were involved in this study.The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of the specimens in various cooling circumstances was tested.The experiential equations were obtained between the average sizes of secondary and tertiary γ precipitates,the strength,and cooling rate.The results show that they are inversely correlated with the cooling rate as well as the grain boundary changes from serrated to straight,the shape of secondary γ precipitates changes from irregular cuboidal to spherical,while the formed tertiary γ precipitates are always spherical.The interrupted cooling tests show that the average size of secondary γ precipitates increases as a linear function of interrupt temperature for a fixed cooling rate of 24℃/min.The strength first decreases and then increases against interrupt temperature,which is fundamentally caused by the multistage nucleation of γ precipitates during cooling process.