Thermal Mechanical Processing Effects on Microstructure Evolution and Mechanical Properties of the Sintered Ti-22Al-25Nb Alloy

This work illustrates the effect of thermal mechanical processing parameters on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the Ti-22Al-25Nb alloy prepared by reactive sintering with element powders, consisting of O, B2 and Ti₃Al phases. Tensile and plane strain fracture toughness tests were carried out at room temperature to understand the mechanical behavior of the alloys and its correlation with the microstructural features characterized by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The results show that the increased tensile strength (from 340 to 500 MPa) and elongation (from 3.6% to 4.2%) is due to the presence of lamellar O/B2 colony and needle-like O phase in B2 matrix in the as-processed Ti-22Al-25Nb alloys, as compared to the coarse lath O adjacent to B2 in the sintered alloys. Changes in morphologies of O phase improve the fracture toughness (K_IC) of the sintered alloys from 7 to 15 MPa·m^−1/2. Additionally, the fracture mechanism shifts from cleavage fracture in the as-sintered alloys to quasi-cleavage fracture in the as-processed alloys.