Deformation Behavior of Wrought and EBAM Ti-6Al-4V under Scratch Testing

Abstract

The microstructure, mechanical properties, and deformation behavior of wrought and electron beam additive manufactured (EBAM) Ti-6Al-4V samples under scratching were studied. As-received wrought Ti-6Al-4V was subjected to thermal treatment to obtain the samples with microstructure and mechanical characteristics similar to those of the EBAM samples. As a result, both alloys consisted of colonies of α phase laths within prior β phase grains and were characterized by close values of hardness. At the same time, the Young’s modulus of the EBAM samples determined by nanoindentation was lower compared with the wrought samples. It was found that despite the same hardness, the scratch depth of the EBAM samples under loading was substantially smaller than that of the wrought alloy. A mechanism was proposed, which associated the smaller scratch depth of EBAM Ti-6Al-4V with α′→α″ phase transformations that occurred in the contact area during scratching. Ab initio calculations of the atomic structure of V-doped Ti crystallites containing α or α″ phases of titanium were carried out to support the proposed mechanism.

Transformations of the Microstructure and Phase Compositions of Titanium Alloys during Ultrasonic Impact Treatment Part II: Ti-6Al-4V Titanium Alloy

“…shown the formation of the HCP phase in the FCC matrix of a single crystal CoCrNi during nanoindentation [16]. The authors of the article, using MD simulation, demonstrated the development of reversible  phase transformations in the Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy during scratch testing, which made it possible to explain the experimentally observed recovery of a scratch [17][18][19]. It has been found that the migration of the twin boundaries in the titanium crystallite under tension is also governed by the development of reversible  transformations [20].…”