Insights into in-situ TiB/dual-phase Ti alloy interface and its high load-bearing capacity

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2021.12.035

Abstract

Abstract:

To better understand the strengthening mechanism of in-situ formed TiB reinforcements in dual-phase Ti6Al4V alloy, the interface characters and properties of α-Ti/β-Ti/TiB system were thoroughly investigated with the combined use of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), ab-initio calculations, and indentation tests. The ab-initio calculations suggest that the highly coherent (100)TiB/($\bar{1}$21)β-Ti phase boundary (PB) has fairly low interface energy of 0.082 J/m2 with an exceptionally high adhesion strength of 6.04 J/m2, owing to the formation of strong interfacial Ti–B ionic bonds. The semi-coherent (20$\bar{1}$)TiB/(0001)α-Ti interface shows a relatively higher interface energy of 1.442 J/m2 but still with a fairly high adhesion strength of 4.95 J/m2. With the obtained interfacial energetics, thermodynamics analyses were further carried out to explore the nucleation mechanism of α-Ti in TiB reinforced Ti6Al4V composite. Superior to the heterogeneous nucleation at TiB/β-Ti interface, the homogeneous nucleation of α-Ti within the β-Ti phase can be more energy-preferred, due to its lower nucleation energy barrier and critical radius. Further indentation tests under various loads of different modes confirmed a remarkably enhanced load-bearing capacity of dual-phase Ti6Al4V alloys, under the critical significance of the strong interfacial bonding achieved by reinforcements of in-situ formed TiB.

Key words: Dual-phase Ti6Al4V alloy, In-situ TiB, Interface, Ab-initio calculation, Indentation test

Qi An, Lujun Huang, Qi Qian, Yong Jiang, Shuai Wang, Rui Zhang, Lin Geng, Liqin Wang. Insights into in-situ TiB/dual-phase Ti alloy interface and its high load-bearing capacity[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2022, 119: 156-166.

Figures/Tables 12

Table 1. Interfacial orientation relationships between in-situ TiB and Ti matrix.

Parallel zone axis	Parallel crystal plane	Fabrication method	Refs.
[010]_TiB//[01$\bar{1}$0]_α_-Ti	(100)_TiB//($\bar{2}$110)_α_-Ti, (001)_TiB//(0002)_α_-Ti	VAR	[24]
[001]_TiB//[01$\bar{1}$0]_α_-Ti	(010)_TiB//($\bar{2}$110)_α_-Ti, (200)_TiB//(0002)_α_-Ti	VAR	[24]
[11$\bar{2}$]_TiB//[0001]_α_-Ti	(201)_TiB//($\bar{1}$100)_α_-Ti	RHP	[28]
[100]_TiB//[0001]_α_-Ti	(001)_TiB//(10$\bar{1}$0)_α_-Ti	Arc deposition	[25]
[0$\bar{1}$1]_TiB//[$\bar{1}$2$\bar{1}$3]_α_-Ti	(100)_TiB//(10$\bar{1}$0)_α_-Ti	SPS	[29]
[010]_TiB//[$\bar{1}$11]_β_-Ti	(001)_TiB//(110)_β_-Ti	SPS	[29]
[010]_TiB//[11$\bar{2}$0]_α_-Ti	(001)_TiB//(0001)_α_-Ti;(101)_TiB//(0001)_α_-Ti;(001)_TiB//(01$\bar{1}$1)_α_-Ti;	Arc melting	[30]
[010]_TiB//[$\bar{1}$11]_β_-Ti	(001)_TiB//(011)_β_-Ti	Arc melting	[30]

Table 2. Chemical compositions of Ti6Al4V alloy powder (wt.%).

Al	V	Fe	Si	C	O	Ti
6.420	4.120	0.180	0.024	0.013	0.120	Bal.

Fig. 1. Microstructure of the TiB-reinforced Ti6Al4V matrix composite.

Table 3. Calculated bulk lattice constants and bulk moduli in comparison with experiments.

Phase	Crystalstructure	a (Å)	b (Å)	c (Å)	B₀ (GPa)	Methods	Refs.
α-Ti	hcp	2.939	-	4.647	110	PAW-PBE	This work
		2.94		4.66	111.35	PAW-PBE	[42]
		2.951	-	4.679	110	Expt.	[43]
β-Ti	bcc	3.255	-	-	106.8	PAW-PBE	This work
		3.250	-	-	98.2	PAW-PBE	[42]
		-	-	-	108	PAW-GGA	[44]
		3.310	-	-	-	Expt.	[45]
TiB	orthorhombic	4.570	6.120	3.054	205.4	PAW-PBE	This work
		4.559	6.111	3.051	201-202	FPLAPW-GGA	[17]
		4.560	6.120	3.060	-	Expt.	[46]

Fig. 2. Microstructures of the α-Ti/β-Ti/TiB multi-interfacial system. (a1-a4) HAADF image and the corresponding element distributions of B, Al, and V. (b1-b3) HRTEM images of the α-Ti/β-Ti, TiB/α-Ti, and TiB/β-Ti interfaces at the locations “1”, “2”, and “3” in Fig. 2(a1), respectively. (c1-c3) FFT pattern analyses to deduce the interfacial ORs in Fig. 2(b1-b3), respectively.

Fig. 3. IFFT images and interface models of TiB/β-Ti and TiB/α-Ti PBs. (a1) The identified contacted facets between TiB and β-Ti, and the constructed models of (a2) (100)TiB/($\bar{1}$21)β-Ti and (a3) ($\bar{1}$01)TiB/(2$\bar{1}$1)β-Ti interfaces; (b1) the contacted facets between TiB and α-Ti, and the interface models of (b2) (20$\bar{1}$)TiB/(0001)α-Ti and (b3) (001)TiB/(01$\bar{1}$$\bar{1}$)α-Ti, respectively.

Fig. 4. Interface formation energies of TiB/β-Ti and TiB/α-Ti PBs. (a) The interface energies of (100)TiB/($\bar{1}$21)β-Ti and ($\bar{1}$01)TiB/(2$\bar{1}$1)β-Ti with different terminations, (b) the interface energies of (20$\bar{1}$)TiB/(0001)α-Ti and (001)TiB/(01$\bar{1}$$\bar{1}$)α-Ti with different terminations.

Fig. 5. Work of separation at different locations and valence charge density distribution of modeled TiB/β-Ti and TiB/α-Ti PBs with stable interfacial terminations. (a1) “1-TiB” type (100)TiB/($\bar{1}$21)β-Ti and (a2) “1-TiB” type ($\bar{1}$01)TiB/(2$\bar{1}$1)β-Ti; (b1) “1-B” type (20$\bar{1}$)TiB/(0001)α-Ti and (b2) “1-BTi2” type (001)TiB/ (01$\bar{1}$$\bar{1}$)α-Ti.

Fig. 6. The nanoindentation results at various local zones, (a1) load curves over displacement, (a2) modulus curves over displacement, (a3) hardness curves over displacement; (b1-b3) indentation morphologies located at primary TiB, Ti6Al4V matrix, and TiB/Ti6Al4V interface, respectively.

Fig. 7. Vickers hardness indentation morphologies of TiB/Ti interface under different loads, (a) 245.2 mN, (b) 980.7 mN.

Fig. 8. Thermodynamic driving forces of (a) β-Ti and (b) α-Ti nucleation, (b1) schematic of α-Ti nucleation site location, (b2) the enlarged plot of local zone marked in Fig. 8(b).

Table 4. The fitted constants (a, m) and estimated initial slop (S), indentation hardness (HIT), and reduced modulus (Er) based on the unloading curves in Fig. 6(a1).

Zone	a (mN/nm^m)	m	S (mN/nm)	H_IT (GPa)	E_r (GPa)	H_IT·E_r^-1	H_IT³·E_r^-2
TiB	0.063	1.36	0.569	23.81	255.99	0.093	0.206
Ti6Al4V	0.045	1.38	0.409	8.61	165.44	0.052	0.023
Interface	0.072	1.36	0.581	14.34	238.85	0.060	0.052

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