Preparation of porous Ti35Nb alloy and its mechanical properties under monotonic and cyclic loading

The Ti-35%Nb (mass fraction) foams were prepared by a powder metallurgy method, and the microstructure and the mechanical properties of the foams under monotonic and cyclic loading were investigated. The microstructure of the foams mainly consists of β phase, and the foams exhibit the homogenous pore distribution with the average pore size of 252 μm. The foams with 66% porosity show a typical stress-strain curve of the open-cell foams, and the plateau stress is about 56 MPa. The fatigue strength of the foam is 15.12 MPa at 10⁷ cycles. The fractographic analysis of the foams reveals that the cracks nucleate within the struts and grow in a fatigue mechanism, resulting in the acceleration of the fatigue damage of the foams.