ScriptaMaterialia,

Pergamon PI1 S1359-6462(96)00143-1

Vol. 35, No. 3, pp. 429-434, 1996 Else&r Science Ltd Copyright 0 1996 Acte Metallu@a Inc. Printed in the USA. All rights reserved 1359-6462/96 $12.00 + .OO

TENSILE PROPERTIES AND STRAIN RATE SENSITIVITY OF Ti-47Al-2Cr-0.2Si SHEET MATERIAL WITH DIFFERENT MICROSTRUCTURES
H. Clemens, W. Glatz2, and F. AppeP
Plansee AG, Technology Center, A - 6600 Reutte, Austria *Institut flir Metallkunde und Werkstoffprtifung, Montanuniversitat, A - 8700 Leoben, Austria 31nstitute for Materials Research, GKSS-Research Centre, D - 2 1502 Geesthacht, Germany (Received February 15,1996) (Accepted March 12, 1996)
Introduction

New materials based on gamma titanium aluminides (gamma alloys) have emerged as potential candidates for high temperature applications such as aerospace structural components (e.g. airframes, turbine components, thermal protection systems) and automotive parts (e.g. exhaust valves, turbocharger rotors). Because of their low density, high Youngs modulus, high-temperature strength retention, good oxidation and burn resistance, the so-called second generation gamma alloys are able to exceed the application temperature of advanced titanium alloys and also to replace nickel- and iron-based superalloys up to 800C. However, poor formability and low room temperature (RT) ductility resulting in low fracture toughness have limited possible applications. In order to overcome these deficiencies world-wide intensive research has be:en conducted to understand the fundamental correlations between alloy composition, microstructure, mechanical properties, and processing behavior (1,2). The present paper deals with the dependence of tensile properties of Ti-47Al-2Cr-0.2Si (composition in atomic-%) sheet material on microstructure and test conditions. Four different microstructures, i.e. fmegrained primary annealed (PA), near gamma (NG), duplex (DU) as well as coarse-grained fully lamellar (FL) have been investigated with emphasis on the influence of grain size, phase distribution, and strain rate on tensile properties at 700C. Fractography was conducted by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to examine the influence of temperature on the fracture behavior and to determine the onset of dynamic recrystallization effects.
Experimental

Ti-47Al-2Cr-0.2Si sheets with a nominal thickness of 1.8 mm were rolled from cast and subsequently forged prematerial. Typical sheet dimensions were 750 x 250 mm*. For details concerning the processing

429

430

STRAIN RATE SENSITIVITY

Vol. 35, No. 3

route see Ref. (3). After rolling the sheets were flattened by annealing at 1000C for 2 hours under a sufficient load. All heat treatments were performed under vacuum conditions (-1 x 10m5 mbar). The microstructure present after primary annealing is referred to as PA. In order to obtain NG, DU, and FL microstructures parts of the primary annealed sheets were subjected to additional heat treatments (Table 1). The mean grain size of the fme-grained microstructures (PA, NG, DU) was determined using the line interception method. The lamellar volume fraction within the DU and FL material was determined by analyzing SEM-micrographs using backscattered electron (BSE) technique. Tensile test specimens with a gauge length of 20 mm were cut out in the rolling direction by means of electro-discharge machining (EDM). Subsequently, the specimens were ground in the direction of the gauge length to a final thickness of 1.5 mm. Additionally, to eliminate surface microcracks developed during the EDM process the side faces of the gauge length were also ground. The surface quality of the gauge area was not further improved to simulate worst case conditions. The cross-section of the finished specimens was 4 x 1.5 mm* and the roughness (R,) of the surface about 2.5 urn in loading direction and 8 urn in transverse direction. For determining the temperature dependence of the tensile properties tests were conducted at RT and elevated temperatures (SOOC, 6OOC,700C SOOC) at an engineering strain rate of 1 x 10e4s-. At 700C additional experiments were conducted using different engineering strain rates (1 x 1Oe4 s, 1 x 10m3 s, 1 x 10.*s-l) to examine the strain rate dependence at this temperature. Tensile tests at RT were performed in air, whereas the tests at elevated temperatures were carried out under vacuum conditions (- 1 x 10m5 mbar). The deformation behavior was studied on tested tensile specimens which were cut parallel to the gauge length, and subsequent to metallographic preparation, analyzed by means of optical microscopy and SEM.
Results Microstructure and Chemical Analvsis

Figure 1 shows the y-TiAl/a,-Ti,Al phase distribution within Ti-47Al-2Cr-0.2Si sheets which were heat treated according to the parameters given in Table 1. In addition, the results from quantitative microstructural analysis are listed. Detailed information on the evolution of the microstructure during heat treatments is given in Ref. (4). A typical chemical analysis of a PA sheet is given in Table 2. No increase in interstitial concentrations was observed after the additional heat treatments.
Tensile Tests at Room and Elevated Temneratures with Constant Engineering Strain Rate

Figure 2 compares the yield stress at a plastic deformation of 0.2% and the elongation to fracture for the different microstructures over the temperature range 20 to 800C. Regarding the microstructures investigated, the most serious differences in yield stress and fracture elongation occur at temperatures
TABLE 1

Heat Treatments and CorrespondingMicrostructuralParameters

Microstructure bat Trcatmcnt Prinlaly Anncalcd I oooc/2h (PA) Near Gamma Duplex PA+ 1310C/lh Fully Lanxllar PA+ 133SWlh

PA + 12OOC/2l~
+ 1ooow4h 0 16

+ I oooc/4h 30 17.5

+ loooc/411 95 100 - 300

Lamellar Volume Fraction [h] Grain Six [pm]

0 9.5

Vol. 35, No. 3

431

Figure 1. Phase distribution within (a) PA, (b) NG, (c) DU, and (d) FL sheet material. The .,-T&AI phase appears brighter than the y-TiAl phase (ELSEimage). Rolling direction is horizontal in all micrographs. Heat treatment parameters are given in Table 1.

below 700C whereas similar properties for all alloys were observed at 800C. The fracture modes were investigated on the material with DU structure. The typical features of fractography are demonstrated in Figure 3. At room temperature, fracture occurred in exclusively transgranular (Figure 3a) manner, while the specimen tested at 600C showed transgranular and a small amount of intergranular fracture (Figure 3b). Deformation at 700C and 800C led to distinct necking of the samples. Failure usually occurs in the necked region and the fracture surfaces exhibited void formation and regions of extremely fine grains due to dynamic recrystallization (Figure 3c,d). These structural features indicate that the deformation and fracture mechanisms may involve rate dependent processes. Thus, in a second series of experiments the variation of the 0.2 yield stress and of the fracture elongation with strain rate was studied. The results are compared in Figure 4. Accordingly, a well expressed increase of the yield stress of 40-70 MPa was observed over the strain rate 1O-4-1O-2 s-. At the same time, the fracture elongation tends to decrease with strain rate, with the degradation of the ductility being strongly expressed in the FL and DU microstructures (Figure 4b). In order to get further information on the different microstructural responses to the strain rate, deformation structures and fracture surfaces were investigated. To this end, specimens with NG and DU microstructures were compared, these microstructures showing very different response to an increasing strain rate (Figure 4b). SEM micrographs of ticture surfaces and metallographically prepared sections 2 mm behind the fracture surface were studied and are shown in Figure 5. The samples had been deformed at 700C at strain rates of 10m4, 10e3,and 10m2 s-l. The tests performed at the two lower strain rates led to similar microstructural and fractographic features, which correspond to the small difference in fracture elongation of the two materials measured over this range of strain rate (Figure 4b). Deformation of samples with the NG

TABLE 2 Chemical Analysis of Primary Annealed Ti-47Al-2Cr-0.2Si I~~Element 1 Ti at.-% wt.-ppm bal. Al 41 Cr 2 Si 0.2 640 350 45 0 N C

Sheet H < 10

432

STRAIN RATE SENSITIVITY

Vol. 35, No. 3

loo 0 0

pi;22cr4.2sI200

:I 400 600 600

a1

I
200
400 600 600

Temperature PC]

Temperature [Cl

Figure 2. Fracture elongation and 0.2-yield strength as a function of temperature for Ti47AI-2Cr-0.2Si sheet material with different microstructures (mean values of two tested specimens). Engineering strain rate: I x 10m4 se.

structure at the lowest strain rate of 10m4 s- is characterized by az grams elongated in the tensile direction. Similarly, in deformed DU structures the a,ly grains are elongated and rotated into the tensile direction, and dissolution and spheroidization of a,-lamellae occurs. Thus, at the lowest strain rate of 10s4 S ductile failure usually occurred. Another common feature of the two microstructures observed after failure at strain rates of low3 s, is the grain refinement in the necked region of the samples due to dynamic recrystallization (Figures 5c,d). The elongated cavities (Figure 5c, arrow) within the necked region were probably formed in the final stages of the test. According to Figure 4b, the most serious differences in the tensile ductility of the two microstructures (NG, DU) occur at the highest strain rate of 10e2 s-l. The different deformation behaviors were found to

Figure 3. Fracture surface of Ti-47AI-2Cr-0.2Si sheet (DU microstructure) at (a) RT, (b) 6OOC, (c) 7OOC, and (d) 800C. Engineering strain rate: 1 x 10e4 se.

Vol. 35, No. 3

STRAIN

RATE

SENSITIVITY

433

500

F
z = F s fn 0 .a, ? 2

450 400 350 300 250 200 1 E-05

1 E-04 Strain

1 E-03

1 E-02

lE-01

1 E-05

1 E-04 Strain

1 E-03
rate [l/s]

1E-O;

lE-01

rate [I/s]

Figure 4. (a) Dependence rate.

of fracture elongation and (b) 0.2-yield strength of Ti-47AL2Cr-O.2Si

sheet material on engineering

strain

be reflected in the deformation structure. Samples with the NG structure exhibited elongated cl2grains and dynamic recrystallization as have been described before for the lower strain rates. On the contrary, DU structures did not show any indication of dynamic recrystallization. The y-grains were found to be less deformed so thtit failure often involved a significant contribution of transgranular fracture in addition to intergranular fracture.
Discussion

There is an extensive body of literature on the fracture behavior of two-phase gamma titanium aluminides, which suggests that the transition from brittle to ductile material behavior is determined by the competition between cleavage fracture and toughening mechanisms such as crack deflection, crack wake bridging, and crack tip shielding or blunting (for a review see (5)). Related micromechanisms have been investigated

Figure 5. Microstrwture in the vicinity of fracture and fiacturc surface ofNG and DU specimens tested at 700C at different strain rates: (a) NG 1 x 10.4s-, (b) DU 1 x 10.s-l, (c) NG 1 x 10.s-l; arrow: elongated cavity, (d) DU 1 x 10.s-l, (e) NG 1 x 10.s-, and(f) DU 1 x 10.s-.

434

STRAINRATE SENSITIVITY

Vol. 35, No. 3

by electron microscope observations (6) which have revealed that dislocation mechanisms are significantly involved in several aspects of crack propagation. The present results provide a phenomenological evidence that failure of sheet material of two-phase gamma titanium aluminides is determined by both, microstructural features and rate dependent dislocation processes. The micro-mechanisms which are believed to be responsible for this behavior will now be discussed. The influence of the microstructure is most clearly indicated by the deformation behavior at RT. The yield stress of the fine grained materials (PA, NG, DU; see Table 1) fultil a Hall-Petch relationship o,, = o, + k,d-* with o0 = 160 MPa and k, = 1.1 MPa m2 (correlation factor: 0.95), which suggests that 6070% of the yield stress arises from long range interactions of dislocations with the grain boundaries. It is commonly assumed that the stress part op = k,d- is independent of temperature and strain rate as long as the related microstructure is not significantly changed in the temperature range investigated. An estimation of op could not be performed for the FL structure due to the uncertainty of kr However, similar values of op are expected, since lamellar interfaces have been found to provide strong barriers for dislocations and deformation twins (7). The significance of the microstructure on the fracture behavior of two-phase y-TiAl alloys is well documented in literature (5). It is speculated that these mechanisms also operate in the sheet materials investigated and determine failure below 700C. The further discussion will therefore concentrate on the strength properties at the brittle-to-ductile transition of the material. Deformation at 700C is characterized by a significant strain rate sensitivity, which may be expressed as s = Ao/Alne,with E being the strain rate. Evaluation of Figure 4a gives s = 6-l 5 MPa, which fits well with the values estimated in a systematic study of ingot material of nearly the same composition (8). Strain rate sensitivities can be related to the activation volume V of thermally activated dislocation mechanisms by V = f k T/(Ao/Alne), where f = 3 is a Taylor factor to account for the polycrystalline nature of the material. For the alloys investigated here, V = (40-l 00) b3 is calculated, with b being the Burgers vector of ordinary dislocations. As has been discussed in (8) these relatively small activation volumes can be associated with dislocation climb. The relative contribution of this mechanism to deformation is expected to be strongly rate dependent. In particular, a decrease in temperature or an increase in strain rate provides a decrease of the probability of thermal activation and therefore results in an increase of the flow stress. For this reason, dislocation climb results in a strongly rate dependent work hardening (8) of the material, which has serious implications on the initiation of dynamic recrystallization and crack formation. Several aspects of dislocation dynamics, such as slip path, multiplication rate and dislocation velocity may change with microstructure. Thus, it is tempting to speculate that the observed variation of the strength with temperature and strain rate reflect rate dependent dislocation mechanisms.
Summarv

Tensile properties of Ti-47Al-2Cr-0.2Si sheet materials with different microstructures were investigated in the temperature range 20-800C. Deformation and fracture at ambient temperatures seem to be determined by microstructural features such as phase distribution and grain size. At elevated temperatures dislocation climb processes seem to be involved in the deformation, which results in rate dependent strength properties.
References
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Y.-W.Kim, JOM 46 (7), 30 (1994). Y.-W.Kim, JOM 41 (7), 24 (1989). H.Clemens, P.Schretter, K.Wwzwallner, A.Bartels, and C.Koeppe, Structural Intermetallics, TMS, Warrendale (1993) p. 205. C.Koeppe, A.Bartels, H.Clemens, P.Schretter, and W.Glatz, Mater.Sci.Eng. A210, 182 (1995). K.S.Chan, Metall.Trans. 24A, 569 (1993). F.Appel, UChristoph, and R.Wagner, PhiLMag. A, 72(2), 341 (1995). F.Appel, P.A.Beaven, and R.Wagner, Acta metall.mater. 41, 1721 (1993). F.Appel, U.Sparka, and R.Wagner, Mat.Res.Soc.Symp.Proc.Vol.364,623 (1995).