Materials Science Forum Vols. 638-642

Abstract: Over the past years significant efforts were dedicated to developing production processes for aerospace and automotive parts from light weight titanium aluminides. Considerable progress was achieved worldwide in the field of near net shape casting. Access has developed an own production route, based on centrifugal investment casting. Various components from TiAl-based alloys, including turbocharger wheels and stator vanes were successfully cast and supplied for engine tests. A newly developed automated centrifugal casting line was recently taken into operation. This presentation will describe our activities that aimed to qualify the casting line for series production of turbocharger wheels: apart from basic issues of casting cluster design, process control and quality inspection we will discuss the casting process from the perspective of its techno-economic characteristics

Abstract: The paper outlines some research work that has been conducted in Harbin Institute of Technology, on the fabrication of TiAl alloys. The review is presented with special emphasis on some different manufacturing routes of TiAl alloys, including investment casting, canned forging and sheet rolling, mechanical milling and rapid solidification. Investment casting has been developed to manufacture near-net shape TiAl blades. Also included are current development of canned forging and rolling for TiAl sheets. Then, TiAl nanocrystalline powders gained through low temperature and two steps mechanical milling were researched. And considerably refined TiAl alloys with Y additions were produced by rapid solidification and the microstructure evolution with Y addition was studied. Details of the processing route and microstructure related to different processing method will be presented.

Abstract: Texture evolution during recrystallization and grain growth was examined for a Ni3Al/Ni two-phase single crystal (binary Ni-18 at.% Al) 83% cold-rolled, then compared with that for a Ni3Al single-phase single crystal (Ni-24 at.% Al). The cold-rolled single crystal had a sharp {110}<001> (Goss) texture. When it was recrystallized at 873K, the texture changed into a complicated one consisting of several components. Most of them had a special rotation relationship to the original Goss texture, i.e. 40˚ about <111>, which special relationship was similarly observed in the single-phase case. The 40˚<111> texture became shaper with no quantitative change as the grain growth proceeded. This high stability of the recrystallized texture contrasted with the single-phase case in which the authors previously found that the texture returned to the original Goss texture. The difference was discussed based on the orientation analysis by an electron backscattered diffraction method.

Abstract: The oxidation resistance of TiAl-alloys can be improved by several orders of magnitude by treating the surface of the materials with small amounts of halogens especially Cl and F. The oxidation mechanism changes due to the so called halogen effect. The formation of a fast growing mixed oxide scale on untreated alloys is suppressed, instead a thin protective alumina scale is formed on samples after optimum treatment. The different methods only influence the surface region of the components so that the bulk properties are not affected. Recent results achieved with complex TiAl-samples showed the potential that the fluorine effect could be used for TiAl-components in several high temperature applications e.g. jet engines. TiAl-specimens were treated with fluorine and chlorine in several ways and their performance during high temperature oxidation tests in air was investigated. Results of isothermal and thermocyclic oxidation tests are presented. The long term stability of the fluorine effect lasted for at least one year under thermocyclic exposure at 900°C in laboratory air. The results are discussed in terms of later use of the fluorine effect for technical applications.

Abstract: Forged and extruded TiAl products suffer from structural and chemical inhomogeneities that reduce the reliability of components. In an attempt to improve the homogeneity of the material, the feasibility of cyclic axial deformation and cyclic torsional deformation superimposed with compression, where much higher strains can be imparted into the material than during forging and extrusion, were investigated. Accordingly, during torsion superimposed with compression pronounced shear localization and cracking occurs. These difficulties can largely be overcome by cyclic axial deformation.

Abstract: In this study the oxidation resistance of Ti-45Al-8Nb (at.%) alloy coated with quaternary Ti-Al-Cr-X layers (X = Si, Hf, Y, Zr and W) was investigated. The Ti-Al-Cr-Si, Ti-Al-Cr-Hf and Ti-Al-Cr-Y coated specimens were exposed to air at 950°C under cyclic conditions, whereas the samples with Ti-Al-Cr-Zr and Ti-Al-Cr-W coatings were thermally cycled at 1000°C. After the maximum exposure time period of 1000 1h-cycles or failure cross-sections of the samples were examined by means of SEM and EDS to analyse the microstructural evolution. At initial stages of exposure, all intermetallic layers formed a thin alumina layer on top, providing a diffusion barrier to oxygen. But interdiffusion between coating and substrate caused depletion of the Ti(Cr,Al)2 Laves phase in the intermetallic layers, which promoted the formation of alumina, as well as transformation into Ti-rich B2-phase. Coarsening of the latter phase beneath the alumina scale resulted in a higher oxidation resistance compared to that of ternary Ti-Al-Cr coating.

Abstract: The impact behaviour of the TiAl alloy TNBV3B produced on three different processing routes - cast, forged (with a relatively small degree of deformation) and extruded - has been studied making use of ballistic tests. The damage evolution due to centre and edge impacts on flat and airfoil-like specimens has been investigated with a focus on the influence of the microstructure. Apart from the influence of material properties, the impact location showed a strong effect on the damage evolution. The extension of impact cracks in the interior of the specimens has been studied making use of heat tinting experiments and computer tomography analyses.

Abstract: D022-Ni3V contains three variants whose [001] c-axes are mutually perpendicular. In addition, due to the order-disorder transition the anti-phase domains (APD) are also introduced under some heat-treatment conditions. In this study, the influence of such microstructures; the size of variants and APDs, on the plastic deformation behavior of Ni3V was investigated by using single crystals, in which the microstructure was variously controlled by heat-treatments.

Abstract: The relation between microstructural parameters, microscopic cyclic deformation mechanisms and macroscopic cyclic strain hardening is investigated in the case of a heat treated PM Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb alloy at 20°C and at 500°C. In particular it is shown that, for the different microstructures considered, a moderate hardening is related to the formation of highly tangled dislocation structures which is in turn controlled by the dislocation glide mean free path. At 500°C this structures evolves towards a braid like structure for the fine fully lamellar microstructure.

Abstract: The aeronautic and automotive industries have shown a renewed interest in TiAl based alloys. The main reasons for such an interest are their low density (~3,8g/cm3), a good stiffness and a high strength for temperatures up to 750°C. However, these alloys exhibit, in their polycrystalline form, a poor ductility at room temperature with widely scattered values. The aim of this study is therefore to characterise their mechanical behaviour with a multiscale methodology, coupling microstructure analysis and strain field measurements. This methodology employs orientation imaging microscopy as well as digital imaging correlation techniques with an intragranular step size of a few micrometers. Two chemical compositions (47 at. % Al and 48 at. % Al) and two processing routes (casting and powder metallurgy) are studied. Thus, four different types of final microstructures are considered, from fully lamellar Ti3Al (a2) + TiAl (g) microstructure to bimodal ones composed of two-phase (a2+g) lamellar grains and monolithic g grains. Firstly, the microstructure is characterised crystallographically and morphologically. This allows the identification of a representative volume element (RVE) inside the analysed volume. Then, uniaxial mechanical tests are performed for each microstructure, and the strain fields are analysed with a multiscale approach, which determines the spatial distribution of the strain field heterogeneity with respect to the different microstructures.