Effect of thermal behavior on the grain morphology and dimension of 80-mm-thick Ti6Al4V plates joined by laser melting deposition

Abstract

Individually fabrication forged parts and then joining them together through Laser Melting Deposition (LMD) is a viable way for manufacturing large components. For investigating the effect of the grain morphology of LMD joint, two 80mm-thick Ti6Al4V plates are successfully manufactured using three different scanning speeds (10, 15, and 20 mm/s). It is essential for understanding the thermal behaviour of melt pool during LMD to improve process quality. This study focuses on the energy density of heat source and the direction of heat flux, analyzing the effect of thermal behavior on the grain morphology and dimension of deposition area, equiaxed crystal zone (EQZ) and the substrate. The macrostructure is evaluated in the different thermal condition and scanning speeds. An extremely fine equiaxed crystal was observed near the joint boundary with a high temperature gradient and cooling rate. The curve epitaxial growth of fine columnar crystal rather than along straight lines is induced by the direction of heat conduction near the joint boundary. However, the orientation angle of epitaxial growth of the coarse columnar crystal is the same as previous deposition layer at the center of deposition area. Given the effect of high heat accumulation and low temperature gradient during LMD, the dimension of columnar crystal is coarsen significantly at the center of deposition area.