Materials Letters 324 (2022) 132786

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Materials Letters
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matlet

Fabrication of functionally graded material via gas tungsten arc welding

based wire feeding additive manufacturing: Mechanical and
microstructural characterization
Dhinakaran Veeman a, Mansoor Alruqi b, Mohan Kumar Subramaniyan a, *,
Siva Shanmugam Nallathambhi c, Micheal Agnelo Browne a, Ashok Kamaraj d
a
Centre for Additive Manufacturing, Chennai Institute of Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600069, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Shaqra University, Al Riyadh 11911, Saudi Arabia
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu 620015, India
d
Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, Telangana 502285, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Fabrication of functionally graded materials-FGM is an emerging technique in the field of additive
Titanium alloys manufacturing-AM. FGM is used in many applications like the marine, aerospace, and automobile sectors. This
Additive manufacturing study gives first-hand knowledge on the mechanical and microstructural characterization of additively manu­
Welding
factured FGM wall (Commercially pure titanium (CP-Ti/Ti-Grade-9) using gas tungsten arc welding-GTAW based
Microstructure
Grain boundaries
AM. Experimental results revealed that this particularly manufactured wall has shown better properties such as
tensile strength, impact energy, hardness, and microstructural characteristics when compared to wrought alloys.
Scanning electron microscopy-SEM analysis indicates the ductile mode of failure that occurred in the fractured
samples. This research has successfully fabricated FGM with spatially improved properties.

1. Introduction
Titanium alloys have become an indispensable structural material in
many industries (from aerospace to biomedicine). Also, Ti alloys are
preferred candidates for bioimplants due to their excellent biocompat­
ibility and low elastic modulus, which are superior to most metal sys­
tems [1,2]. Ti-Grade-9 is used in the application that requires high-
strength materials and also used to produce seamless tubes, since it
has better cold-forming properties than Ti-Grade-5 [3]. Additive layer
manufacturing-ALM is an effective method to manufacture complex
designed structures [4]. The graded materials with varying properties
along the spatial orientation, altered to achieve certain functions are
known as FGM. FGMs are often constructed with variations in shape,
density, composition and microstructure at specific points to improve
mechanical integrity. FGM promotes compatibility with other structural
components and it is desired by many industries such as the aerospace,
nuclear power, marine and biomedical application [5,6]. This work
employs GTAW for additive manufacturing. This technique is used
because it is easy to build Ti-alloy layered components with a gradual
variation in material structure to match design functionality. In the
GTAW-based AM process, adjusting the heat input does not affect the arc
length, and the rate of material deposition can be independently
controlled by varying the wire feed speed. The separate energy input and
materials input processes make AM control easier than GMAW-based
AM [7–9]. It has capacity to build large superior quality components
inexpensively, with no splash, and less pollution making it ideal for high
quality demanding industries [10,11]. Jiankang Huang et al. [12] dis­
cussed the effect of nitrogen gas in the microstructure and mechanical
behavior of Ti-Grade-5 fabricated using GTAW-based AM. They reported
that there is an improvement in mechanical performance when the ni­
trogen flow rate varies from 1 to 2 l/min comparing with conventional
GTAW-based AM (without nitrogen gas flow). Guoyang zhang et al. [13]
discussed the dual wire arc AM technique to fabricate Ti-Grade-9
component and analyze its microstructural and mechanical properties.
It shows the variation in microstructure results in high tensile strength.
Till now, not much work has been reported regarding the GTAW-based
AM process of Ti-alloys. Hence, a first attempt is taken forward to build
FGM using CP-Ti and Ti-Grade-9 material by GTAW-based AM process.
This work also deals with mechanical and microstructural character­
ization of FGM.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: smohankumar@citchennai.net (M. Kumar Subramaniyan).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2022.132786
Received 7 June 2022; Received in revised form 1 July 2022; Accepted 2 July 2022
Available online 5 July 2022
0167-577X/© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
D. Veeman et al.
2. Experimentation
The chemical composition (in wt. %) for CP-Ti and Ti-Grade-9 filler
wires are as follows: C-0.08, Fe-0.20, N-0.03, O-0.25, Ti-balance and C-
0.08, N-0.03, O-0.15, Fe-0.25, V-2.50, Al-3.5, Ti- balance, respectively.
Buddy TIG 400i power source with the custom-made numerical control
unit to control torch movements (Linear and vertical). An argon inert gas
chamber was used to provide an inert environment. Wall appearance of
silver and white color proves that the shielding effect has been applied
successfully. Ideal process parameters (based on trials and experiments)
used to fabricate the FGM wall are indicated in Table 1. A wall of 100 ×
50 × 15 mm3 was fabricated, and it was machined to 95 × 45 × 10 mm3
to gain an even surface finish (Fig. 1(a)). Tensile, impact, and hardness
samples were prepared with help of wire cut EDM as per ASTM E8/E8M-
16, ASTM-E23, and ASTM-E92-17 respectively. Optical microscope
(OM), Electron backscatter diffraction-EBSD and Energy-dispersive X-
ray Spectroscopy-EDS samples were polished and etched (Krol’s Re­
agent: H2O-85%+HNO3-10%+HF-5%) to get mirror finish. Fractured
samples were subjected to SEM. The tensile test was conducted (loading
rate 1 mm/min) using Make: MTS with a 50kN load cell capacity uni­
versal testing machine. Hardness measurement conditions are as fol­
lows: interval-2.5 mm, dwell time-10 s, and load-500 g. The results of
the tensile, impact, and hardness tests were obtained are average values
of 3 tests and measurements.
3. Results and discussion
From the results, it is observed that there were no micro fissures or
metallurgical defects (Fig. 1(b)). This implies that the fabricated FGM
has a good metallurgical bond. The reason for microstructural change in
the FGM wall is due to the addition of filler wire (separate wire input)
that causes a negative temperature gradient which in turn the retards the
columnar grain growth and promotes equiaxial grain growth. So that the
columnar dendrites growth is stopped and columnar dendrites con­
verted into equiaxed dendrites (Fig. 1) [14]. With diverse morphologies
of α-phase structure dominates other phases in CP-Ti structure. GTAW-
produced CP-Ti exhibit mainly serrated α with acicular α laths in some
regions. The β-phase is retained in between the α-laths is also evident in
the CP-Ti region (Fig. 1(c)). From the reported literature, the prior β
grains grow epitaxially across layers built [15]. For the Ti-alloys, Al and
V are mainly distributed to α and β-phase respectively [16]. It is noted
that the white phase was β-Ti and the black phase was α-Ti, based on this
notion, i.e., the microstructure of Ti-Grade-9 primarily consists of
lamellar α + β (Fig. 1(e)). The structure of the FGM zone is mainly
consists of α, β and α + β phases (Fig. 1(d)). From previous works re­
ported in the field of wire arc additive manufacturing, it is observed that
the complex thermal history involves various factors such as constitu­
tional supercooling, energy density, heat input, deposition rate, peak
temperature, and cooling rate of the layer deposited. These factors
Table 1
Ideal process parameters for wall deposition.
Process parameters Values
Current 160 Amps
Voltage 11.5 Volts
Torch speed 40 cm/min
Wire feed rate 5 m/min
Heat input 0.27 kJ/mm
Deposition rate 4.2 kg/hr
Stand-off distance 10 mm
Contact tip to layer angle 90◦
Torch gas (Argon) 15 l/min
Shielding gas (Argon) 20 l/min
Average bead height 3.5 mm (Approx.)
Total no of layers 50
Dwell time 90 Seconds
Wire diameter 2 mm
2
Materials Letters 324 (2022) 132786
highly affect the heat transfer process during layer-by-layer deposition.
The occurrence of a complicated thermal history (during heating and
cooling) in the layer-by-layer deposition causes variation in the micro­
structure [17,18].
To learn more about the FGM, the EBSD analysis was carried out.
Figures display the inverse pole figure-IPF, grain boundary misorienta­
tion angle distribution-GBMAD, and grain size distribution map of the
FGM (Fig. 2(a-d)). GBMAD map influences mechanical integrity for
polycrystalline metals [19]. The average grain size, Low angle (red and
green lines)-LAGB (((2◦ ≤θ ≤ 5◦ ) and (5◦ ≤θ ≤ 15◦ )), and High angle
(blue line) grain boundaries-HAGB ((θ ≥ 15◦ )) of the FGM are 26mi­
crons, 17.5%, and 85.5% respectively. The EBSD outcomes revealed that
the more proportion of high-angle grain boundary in FGM-interface is
responsible for improving the mechanical performance of the fabricated
FGM. The presence of HAGB detains the growth of brittle cracks. The
results show that the FGM has a greater ability to detain brittle fissures
[20].
The Fig. 2(e) shows the EDS spectrum of the FGM. EDS analysis
revealed that there was no evident change in the chemical composition
of FGM compared to filler wire as no additional metals were introduced
during the fabrication of FGM. The Fig. 3(a) shows the stress–strain plot
of the FGM. Tensile strength and elongation of the FGM were 623 ± 10
MPa and 14 ± 0.5% respectively. The FGM-interface specimen failed at
the CP-Ti side confirming the strong bonding between the CP-Ti and Ti-
Grade-9. There is an increase in tensile strength of FGM-interface when
compared to CP-Ti (Strength-351.01 ± 1.5 MPa and Elongation-19.42
± 1%) and has a comparable tensile strength to that of Ti-Grade-9
(Strength-620.98 ± 2 MPa and Elongation-15.4 ± 1.5%), which meets
the minimum requirement of ASTM-B-863 standard (CP-Ti: Strength-
345 MPa, Elongation-18% and Ti-Grade-9: 620 MPa, Elongation-15%).
The quality of the FGM is determined by factors such as grain size,
morphologies, and structural characteristics. In reported literature, it
was noted that the interface of lamellar α + β hampers, the movement of
dislocation, causing reduction in ductility and high strength [21]. The
Charpy impact energy of FGM is 50 ± 1 J, which is higher than that of
wrought alloys (40 J (CP-Ti) and 48 J (Ti-Grade-9)) and FGM has good
toughness. The hardness plot of the wall shows an increasing trend from
Bottom to Top (Fig. 3(b)). The hardness values of various zones are as
follows: CP-Ti ranges from 160 to 192HV, FGM: 325HV and Ti-Grade-9
ranges from 310 to 345HV. The variation in the hardness is due to
complex thermal history during deposition, which in turn causes
microstructural changes. The hardness observed in the wall is compa­
rable with wrought alloys (137HV (CP-Ti) [22] and 296HV (Ti-Grade-
9)) [3]. In SEM numerous dimples were noticed in the fracture surfaces
of the tensile sample, showing that it experienced large plastic defor­
mation before fracture (Fig. 3(c)). Microvoids and other morphologies
such as dimples and honeycomb with river pattern structures formed in
the granular boundary of the metallic wall during fracture indicate the
occurrence of the ductile mode of fracture (Fig. 3 (c-d)) [23].
4. Conclusion
Based on the present study, the following important conclusions
were drawn.
• FGM wall was fabricated successfully using AM that employed the
GTAW technique to get high strength-weight ratio and better
properties.
• The microstructural variations were observed in the FGM wall which
is due to the complex thermal history.
• EBSD outcomes revealed that the FGM consists of more proportion of
HAGB than LAGB which results in a better ability to detain brittle
fissures.
• The EDS examination confirms that no significant change in chemi­
cal elements at FGM.
D. Veeman et al. Materials Letters 324 (2022) 132786

Fig. 1. Macro and microstructure of FGM wall.

Fig. 2. EBSD outcomes and EDS spectrum of the FGM-interface.

• The quality of FGM were evaluated in terms of mechanical integrity
which is superior to that of wrought alloys due to variation in the
microstructure and complex thermal history.
• The fracture was noted at the CP-Ti side indicating strong bonding
between the FGM-interface.
• The fractography images were captured using SEM and verified that
the fracture was ductile in nature.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Dhinakaran Veeman: Conceptualization, Writing – original draft,
Data curation. Mansoor Alruqi: Data curation, Investigation, Valida­
tion. Mohan Kumar Subramaniyan: Supervision, Writing – review &
editing. Siva Shanmugam Nallathambhi: Methodology, Writing – re­
view & editing. Micheal Agnelo Browne: Data curation, Validation,
Formal analysis. Ashok Kamaraj: Data curation, Investigation, Formal
analysis.

3
D. Veeman et al. Materials Letters 324 (2022) 132786

Fig. 3. Tensile plot, hardness profile and Fractography images of FGM (tensile and impact).

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