Materials and Design 181 (2019) 107943

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Materials and Design

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Influence of trace boron addition on microstructure, tensile properties

and their anisotropy of Ti6Al4V fabricated by laser directed
energy deposition
Aitang Xue, Xin Lin ⁎, Lilin Wang ⁎, Jian Wang, Weidong Huang
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710072, PR China
Key Laboratory of Metal High Performance Additive Manufacturing and Innovative Design, MIIT China, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710072, PR China

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• The prior β grains are significantly re-

fined after the addition of boron.
• The α phase aspect ratios are signifi-
cantly reduced with the increase of
boron content.
• The highly orientated TiB phases play a
significant role in the anisotropy.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The mechanical anisotropy of laser directed energy deposition (L-DED) titanium alloys using laser solid forming
Received 8 March 2019 (LSF) is significantly deteriorated owing to the coarse prior β columnar grains and continuous grain boundary α-
Received in revised form 2 May 2019 laths (αGB). The influence mechanisms of trace boron (up to 0.25 wt%) on the microstructure, tensile properties
Accepted 13 June 2019
and anisotropy of Ti6Al4V manufactured by LSF were investigated. The sizes of β grains and α phases both de-
Available online 15 June 2019
creased with increasing boron content. Compared with the Ti6Al4V deposit, when the addition of boron was
Keywords:
0.08 wt%, the average width of β grains was reduced by about one order of magnitude owing to the growth
Laser deposition restricting effect caused by boron and Zener pinning by TiB. Besides, the average length and aspect ratio of α-
Titanium alloys laths were reduced by 43% and 33%, respectively, owing to the refinement of β grains and the heterogeneous nu-
Microstructure cleation of α phases on TiB particles. With an increase in boron content, the strength anisotropy gradually de-
Mechanical properties creased for the disappearance of αGB, the elongation anisotropy initially increased and then significantly
Anisotropy decreased for the poor deformation compatibility between the TiB and the matrix. A better combination of
strength and elongation could be obtained with the addition of 0.08 wt% boron to Ti6Al4V.
© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
⁎ Corresponding authors at: State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing,
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710072, PR China. Laser solid forming (LSF), one of the laser directed energy deposition
E-mail addresses: xlin@nwpu.edu.cn (X. Lin), wlilin@nwpu.edu.cn (L. Wang). (L-DED) additive manufacturing technologies, is an attractive technique

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2019.107943
0264-1275/© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
2 A. Xue et al. / Materials and Design 181 (2019) 107943
with several advantages of allowing to produce complex structure com-
ponents with high mechanical properties and saving materials and cost.
In recent decades, the titanium alloy fabricated by LSF has been heavily
studied, as titanium alloys are widely used in the aerospace and auto-
mobile industries for their high strength-to-weight ratio, excellent me-
chanical properties and outstanding corrosion resistance [1]. Titanium
alloy is also known as one of the most suitable alloys for additive
manufacturing.
Because of the rapid heating-cooling and heat dissipation mainly
paralleling to the deposition direction of the molten pool, the micro-
structure of the titanium alloys fabricated by LSF is characterized by
the coarse epitaxial β columnar grains and the fine intragranular α
phases [2–4]. The columnar growth is a common phenomenon ob-
served in all AM processes of metals including the powder bed process
[5,6]. The previous studies [7–15] have shown that the coarse prior β co-
lumnar grains, the continuous grain boundary α-laths (αGB) and the
large α colonies lead to the ductility reduction and mechanical proper-
ties anisotropy of titanium alloys manufactured by additive
manufacturing. Especially, these microstructure characteristic should
also lead to the lower low cycle fatigue property of the titanium alloys
fabricated by LSF. Therefore, many efforts [16–19] on the titanium alloys
fabricated by LSF have been devoted to improving the ductility and re-
ducing the anisotropy of titanium alloys by adjusting the morphology
of prior β grains and α phases. Up to now, the process parameter opti-
mization and alloy composition re-design are the common used
methods to improve the microstructure and mechanical properties of
the titanium alloys fabricated by LSF.
Regarding process controlling, Zhang et al. [16] and Zhu et al. [20] in-
dicated that the un-melted particles of the prealloyed powder could be
used as the heterogeneous nuclei in molten pool by reducing the laser
energy density in the Ti6Al2Sn2Zr3Mo1.5Cr2Nb and
Ti6.5Al3.5Mo1.5Zr0.3Si titanium alloys fabricated by LSF, thereby the
β grains were significantly refined and the volume fraction of β
equiaxed grains was effectively increased, resulting in the significant si-
multaneous improvement of the ductility and strength. However, their
work has shown that the process parameter window for obtaining all
equiaxed grains was very narrow. Zhang et al. [21] found that the releas-
ing of alloy formation enthalpies when using the mixture of Ti, Al and V
elemental powders could change heat flow direction ahead of the solid/
liquid interface at a low laser power, and thus led to the transition from
coarse epitaxial β columnar grains to β equiaxed grains in Ti6Al4V de-
posit. However, the influence of alloy formation enthalpies on molten
pool temperature became weak as high power laser was used. Although
the microstructure of the titanium alloys fabricated by LSF can be
changed through the above process adjustment, the narrow process pa-
rameter window poses a great challenge to the control during the LSF
process. Recently, Martina et al. [22] combined wire and arc additive
manufacturing (WAAM) technology with the interlayer rolling treat-
ment, and found that the sizes of both β and α grains of Ti6Al4V deposit
decreased after layer-by-layer rolling. However, this combined technol-
ogy increased the economic and time costs, and it was more difficult to
produce complex parts.
Composition design is another valid way to improve microstructure
and mechanical properties of additive manufactured components. The
design of titanium alloys composition has been studied by altering com-
mon alloying elements and/or adding some trace elements. The com-
mon alloying elements in titanium alloys leading to a wide
solidification temperature range and inducing the a large constitutional
undercooling ahead of the solid/liquid interface, such as Ni, W, Mo and
Cr, are beneficial to the formation of fine equiaxed grains during the ad-
ditive manufacturing process [23–26]. Some refractory alloying ele-
ments, such as W, are prone to form lack-of-fusion defects.
Bermingham reported that under a lower temperature gradient, the ad-
dition of grain refining solute (Cr) and nucleant particles (La2O3) to-
gether promoted the formation of fine equiaxed β grains in WAAMed
Ti3Al8V6Cr4Mo4Zr + La2O3 deposit [26]. The addition of trace elements
is also used to refine titanium alloys microstructure. Bermingham et al.
[27] estimated the growth restriction factor (Q) of different alloy ele-
ments in titanium casting, and reckoned that the elements with better
refining effect on titanium casting were B, Si, C, etc. Bermingham [28]
further studied the influence of trace Si (b0.75 wt%) on the WAAMed
CP Ti and found that the volume fraction of equiaxed β grains increased
and their sizes decreased with increasing Si content. Boron, which has a
large Q in titanium alloy, is an effective grain refinement element in ti-
tanium alloy casting [27]. The refinement was reckoned to be related
to the constitutional undercooling at the solid/liquid interface caused
by boron rejection from primarily solidified grains into the liquid
ahead of the solidification front [29,30]. The effects of trace B (up to
0.13 wt%) on the WAAMed Ti6Al4V have been also studied [18,31]
and results indicated that β grains still kept columnar growth with in-
creasing B content, but the widths were significantly reduced, the αGB
became shorter or even disappeared, and the intragranular α phases
also became equiaxed. As a result, the strength of WAAMed deposit
was increased, the ductility was decreased, and their anisotropy was in-
creased. Mantri et al. [32] tried to add trace B (0.5 wt%) to the β titanium
alloy (Ti\\12Mo) fabricated by LSF, and also obtained fine β equiaxed
grains and equiaxed α phases. Besides the refinement effect of B on β
grains, it was also found that the addition of B could promote the
equiaxed α phase formation and it was believed that the TiB particles
probably acted as the effective heterogeneous nuclei of α-phase be-
cause of small lattice mismatch between them [33].
Since Ti6Al4V has excellent comprehensive performance and com-
prises N50% of the titanium alloy production [34]. It is of great practical
significance to further improve the microstructure and mechanical
properties of the Ti6Al4V alloy fabricated by LSF. It has been proved
that trace B can refine the microstructure and improve the performance
of WAAMed Ti6Al4V well [18,31]. Compared to WAAM process, the LSF
process is characterized by much larger energy density and higher
cooling rate, which will lead to a remarkable effect on the competition
between the epitaxial growth and the nucleation behavior in the solid-
ification of the molten pool. The effect of trace B on the microstructure of
the β titanium alloy fabricated by LSF has been reported [32], however,
the β titanium alloy has larger solidification range (≈15 k) than Ti6Al4V
(≈5 k) and the addition amount of B in previous research was also
much higher (0.5 wt%). In addition, there still lack the satisfied investi-
gation on the improvement of trace B additions in the tensile properties
and their anisotropy of the titanium alloy fabricated by LSF. Therefore,
the influence mechanisms of trace B additions on the microstructure,
tensile properties and their anisotropy of the Ti6Al4V fabricated by
LSF which has a very small solidification range, need to be further
clarified.
In present work, the influence mechanisms of B on the morphology
and size of β grain and α phase were clarified through the investigating
of solidification and solid state phase transformation during the LSF pro-
cess. Then the influence of microstructure on the tensile properties and
their anisotropy were also studied in detail. The findings in this paper
will promote the development of new titanium alloys befitting additive
manufacturing technology.
2. Experimental details
The experiments were conducted in a LSF equipment consisting of a
6 kW diode laser, a five-axis numerical control working table, a coaxial
powder feeder nozzle and an argon chamber with oxygen content
below 50 ppm. Prealloyed Ti6Al4V spherical powders were produced
using a plasma rotating electrode process. The powder size ranged
from 80 μm to 150 μm. Amorphous element boron powder with the pu-
rity of 99.999% and the nominal diameter of 1 μm was also used. The B
contents used in this study were nominally 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 wt%. Two
kinds of powder were mixed for 4 h by planetary ball milling with a
speed of 180 r/min and contrarotation every 2 min. Before the LSF, the
mixed powders were dried in a vacuum oven for 2 h at 120 ± 5 °C to
 A. Xue et al. / Materials and Design 181 (2019) 107943 3

Table 1
Processing parameters of the LSF.

Laser power (W) Scanning velocity (mm/s) Powder feed rate (g/min) Nominal increment (mm) Spot diameter (mm)

2100 12 14 0.6 6

A series of single-walls with the dimension of 110 × 8 × 105 mm3

Table 2 were deposited layer-by-layer using a reciprocating scanning strategy.
The measured composition of Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy (wt%). The processing parameters used are listed in Table 1.
Nominal Al V B Fe C N H O Ti Specimens were machined from the as-deposited builds for compo-
composition sitional analysis, metallographic analysis and tensile properties testing.
Ti6Al4V 6.59 4.07 b0.005 0.067 0.021 0.01 0.003 0.16 bal. The actual average chemical composition in the deposit was measured
Ti6Al4V-0.1B 6.43 4.05 0.08 0.10 0.016 0.043 0.007 0.18 bal. using an ICP AES and a Leco Combustion, as shown in Table 2. The con-
Ti6Al4V-0.2B 6.62 3.88 0.17 0.057 0.025 0.024 0.008 0.22 bal. centration of B in the deposits is lower than in the mixed powders. The
Ti6Al4V-0.3B 6.56 3.98 0.25 0.056 0.025 0.021 0.004 0.21 bal.
decrease of B is probably caused by adhering to the grinding ball during
ball milling, being blown away during powder feeding, evaporation and
loss from melt pool during melting owing to the lower density and
eliminate moisture absorption and ensure the good flow ability. The smaller size (1 μm) of B compared with the Ti6Al4V powder.
forged Ti6Al4V plates with a dimension of 150 × 50 × 10 mm3 were Kroll reagent (1 ml HF, 3 ml HNO3 and 50 ml H2O) was used to etch
used as the substrate during the LSF process. The substrate surface the microstructure of all metallographic specimens after mounting,
was ground with sand paper and then degreased with acetone and grinding and polishing. The microstructure was observed using an
ethanol. Optical Microscopy (OM, OLYMPUSGX71) and a Scanning Electron

Fig. 1. The deposition strategy and size of the Ti6Al4V-xB fabricated by LSF tensile specimens (unit: mm): The deposition strategy and size of the deposits (a), The schematic diagram of the
tensile specimens position in transverse (b) and longitudinal directions (c), The size of tensile specimen (d).
4 A. Xue et al. / Materials and Design 181 (2019) 107943
Microscopy (SEM, Tescan VEGAIILMH). Quantitative microstructure
measurements involved in this study were conducted using the
Image-Pro Plus (IPP) software. A JEM-200CX Transmission Electron Mi-
croscope (TEM) with an accelerating voltage of 120 kV was used to an-
alyze phase orientation. TEM foils were prepared by twin-jet polishing
technique in an electrolyte of 6 vol% HClO4 + 34 vol% C4H10O
+ 60 vol% CH3OH. Two types of tensile samples along the longitudinal
and transverse directions of the deposit were machined in order to eval-
uate the tensile properties and their anisotropy, as shown in Fig. 1. All
samples were tested at room temperature with a constant crosshead
displacement rate of 1 mm/min using an Instron-3382 testing machine.
For each alloy, three specimens were tested to obtain the average re-
sults. The fracture morphology of the tensile specimen was observed
using a S4800 SEM after ultrasonic washing. Microstructure observation
before tensile test was performed at the same position where the corre-
sponding tensile sample was cut out.
The solidification curves of the four Ti6Al4V-xB alloys were calcu-
lated using the JMatPro software, from which their solidification tem-
perature ranges (ΔT) were determined.
3. Results
3.1. The prior β grains morphology
Fig. 2 shows the longitudinal section macrostructure of Ti6Al4V-xB
titanium alloy deposits. The addition of B significantly changes the mor-
phology and size of prior β grains. It still remains the epitaxial growth of
β columnar grains when the content of B is b0.08 wt%. However, it is ob-
vious that the volume fraction of equiaxed dendrites increases after the
Fig. 2. Longitudinal sections of the macrostructure of Ti6Al4V-xB deposits: (a) Ti6Al4V, (b) Ti6Al4V-0.08 wt%B, (c) Ti6Al4V-0.17 wt%B, (d) Ti6Al4V-0.25 wt%B.
content of B exceeds 0.17 wt%, as shown in Fig. 2c and d, and the mac-
rostructure characterize with alternating columnar and equiaxed den-
drites. Besides the significant change of the morphology of prior β
grains, the size is also dramatically decreased.
In order to more accurately determine the size of the prior β grains
in the Ti6Al4V-xB deposits, the transverse sections of the deposits,
which was perpendicular to the deposition direction, were observed,
as shown in Fig. 3. The equivalent diameter of the equiaxed morphology
on this section was measured to standardize the prior β grains size. The
prior β grains are obviously refined with the addition of B. The average
diameter of the prior β grains in the Ti6Al4V deposit is 577 μm (mea-
sured using the linear intercept method), the average diameter of the
prior β grains is reduced by about one order of magnitude to 35 μm
with the addition of 0.08 wt% B. However, it become more and more dif-
ficult to distinguish the prior β grain boundaries based on continuous
αGB because the TiB distributing along the developed dendrites makes
the continuous αGB become intermittent or even disappear when the
content of B exceeds 0.17 wt%. Even though, it is still obvious that the
extent of grain refinement with B content from 0.08 wt% to 0.25 wt%
is much lower than from 0 to 0.08 wt% and beyond doubt. This is attri-
bute to a saturation in the grains refinement when the B content is ap-
proximately 0.1 wt% [29].
3.2. The α phases morphology
Fig. 4 shows the microstructure of Ti6Al4V-xB deposits. The phase
contrast in these micrographs is shown as, α: dark gray, β: bright
gray, and TiB: white. Boron significantly alters all variants of the α
phases, including αGB and intragranular α-lath. The length of αGB and
 A. Xue et al. / Materials and Design 181 (2019) 107943
Fig. 3. Transverse sections of the microstructure of Ti6Al4V-xB deposits: (a) Ti6Al4V, (b) Ti6Al4V-0.08 wt%B, (c)Ti6Al4V-0.17 wt%B, (d) Ti6Al4V-0.25 wt%B.
the size of α colony on both sides of the grain boundary decrease signif-
icantly with increasing B content owing to the presence of TiB and the
decrease of prior β grain size. Consequently, the continuous coarse
αGB and large grain boundary Widmanstätten α colonies are elimi-
nated, and only a little small, isolated colonies and segments are
remained after boron addition.
The distribution histograms and average values of length, width and
aspect ratio of the intragranular α-laths in Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy
deposits are given in Fig. 5 (measured using IPP). With increasing B con-
tent, the lengths and aspect ratios of α-laths dramatically decreases,
while their widths slightly increase and even some α phases become
equiaxed. Especially, when the addition of B increases to 0.08 wt%, the
average length and aspect ratio of the α-laths are reduced by about
43% and 33%, respectively, when comparing with the α-laths of
Ti6Al4V deposit.
3.3. The TiB phases morphology
The XRD spectra for the Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy deposits are
shown in Fig. 6. For the Ti6Al4V alloy deposit, all peaks match well
with those of α and β phases. With the B content increases from 0 to
0.25 wt%, the orthorhombic TiB and β peaks that overlap with the α
peaks were detected. However, the existence of TiB phases cannot be
identified by the XRD spectra alone because of the overlap of the TiB
peaks and the α peaks, and the TiB phases are further identified by
TEM in Fig. 7. Although the atomic radius of B is smaller than Ti, the ad-
dition of B does not cause the obvious lattice distortion of the α and β
phases for this the negligible solubility of B in Ti, thus the peaks position
of the α and β phases does not change with increasing B content. It also
5
indicates that the solution strengthening induced by B is negligible with
the addition of 0.25 wt% B content. However, it is interesting to note that
there are the more peaks of α and β phases corresponding to different
crystal planes are detected when the addition of B is 0.25 wt%, which
is the indicative of a more messy orientation of the α and β phases,
and this is consistent with the microstructure changing from
Widmanstätten to basket-weave with increasing B content, as shown
in Fig. 4.
In addition, the distribution of TiB can be observed from Fig. 2. The
TiB needles typically distributes in-between the β dendrites that aligned
with the build direction for the reason that the interdendritic regions
contain the highest boron concentration in the residual liquid during
the final solidification stage, where a divorced eutectic of the β and
TiB phases forms [35]. As the B content increases, dendritic growth be-
comes the more developed, thus TiB distributes more evenly. It is ther-
modynamically stable phase TiB distributing between the β dendrites
that makes the β dendritic morphology can be distinguished after the
solid phase transition of β → α. Therefore, the β dendritic morphology
can be observed in the room temperature microstructure of the
Ti6Al4V-xB deposits.
TEM observation was carried out on the Ti6Al4V-0.17 wt% B alloy
deposit, in which the proper volume fraction of TiB contributed to the
analysis of phase orientation. The morphology, size and orientation of
TiB are shown in Fig. 7. The TiB mainly exhibits equiaxed-like, fine-
needle-like, plate-like and hollow hexagonal morphologies, wherein
fine-needle-like TiB accounts for the most. And similar phenomena
were also found in the previous researches by Banerjee et al. [36]. The
average length, width and aspect ratio of the TiB are 4.45 μm, 0.29 μm
and 15.34 (measured using IPP), respectively. In addition, the
6 A. Xue et al. / Materials and Design 181 (2019) 107943
Fig. 4. The microstructure of Ti6Al4V-xB deposits in longitudinal direction: (a) Ti6Al4V, (b) Ti6Al4V-0.08 wt%B, (c) Ti6Al4V-0.17 wt%B, (d) Ti6Al4V-0.25 wt%B.
orientation relationship between the TiB phase and the neighbouring α
phase can be established from the SAD patterns as ½111TiB//[5143α, in-
dicating that the precipitated TiB phase is orthorhombic and has a co-
herent orientation relationship with the adjacent α phase.
Besides, it should be noted that the high solidification rate experi-
enced during the LSF process results in much smaller TiB than that in
WAAM deposits (length N 50 μm, width≈5 μm; LSF: length b 8 μm,
width b 0.5 μm) [31], and the distribution of TiB is also more evenly
owing to the finer dendrite microstructure.
3.4. The tensile properties at room temperature
The following formula is used as an indicator for evaluating the an-
isotropy of mechanical properties [8]:
r ¼ jσ x −σ z j=σ x
where r is anisotropy index, σx and σz denote the mechanical properties
(e.g. YS, UTS and EL) in the transverse and longitudinal directions,
respectively.
The tensile properties along the transverse and longitudinal direc-
tions and the anisotropy of the Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy deposits are
shown in Fig. 8. The addition of trace B has a strong influence on the ten-
sile properties and generally leads to the increase in strength at the ex-
pense of ductility. Both the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and yield
strength (YS) gradually increase, and the fracture elongation (EL) grad-
ually decreases with increasing B content (0–0.25 wt%). Especially, all
the YS, UTS and EL along the transverse and longitudinal directions ex-
ceed the minimum ASTM requirements for forging Ti6Al4V (σb
≥ 895 MPa, σs ≥ 825 MPa, δ ≥ 8%) when the B content is b0.08 wt%. Com-
pared with the Ti6Al4V deposit, the addition of 0.08 wt% B increases the
UTS in the transverse and longitudinal directions by 6.32% and 7.18%,
and to 1108 Mpa and 1062 Mpa, respectively. The EL is reduced by
13.23% and 9.96%, and to 9.05% and 10.58%, respectively. However, com-
pared with the transverse direction, the Ti6Al4V-xB deposits exhibit a
lower-strength and higher-elongation in the longitudinal direction.
As shown in Fig. 8c, with increasing B content, the strength anisot-
ropy decreases, and the elongation anisotropy initially increases and
then decreases significantly. Especially, when the content of B is
0.25 wt%, the YS, UTS and EL anisotropy index r are reduced to 2.45%,
2.13% and 7.40%, respectively.
The fracture surfaces of the tensile testing samples in the longitudi-
nal direction of the Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy deposits are shown in
Fig. 9. Macroscopically, the fracture surfaces become flatter with in-
ð1Þ creasing B content. Microscopically, the dimples become smaller and
shallower, the number of tear edges and secondary cracks increases
with increasing B content. This indicates that the strength increases
and elongation decreases with increasing B content, which is consistent
with the results of mechanical properties.
4. Discussion
4.1. Influence of boron on the solidification process
The solidification curves and solidification temperature range of the
Ti6Al4V-xB alloy calculated using the JMatPro based on Scheil model are
shown in Fig. 10. The addition of B slightly reduces the precipitation
temperature of β phase (Fig. 10a) and largely expands the solidification
 A. Xue et al. / Materials and Design 181 (2019) 107943
Fig. 5. The sizes of the α-laths in Ti6Al4V-xB deposits: (a), (b), (c)Ti6Al4V; (d), (e), (f) Ti6Al4V-0.08 wt%B; (g), (h), (i) Ti6Al4V-0.17 wt%B; (j), (k), (l) Ti6Al4V-0.25 wt%B.
Fig. 6. The XRD spectra for the Ti6Al4V-xB deposits.
7
range of the alloy (Fig. 10b). The solidification range of Ti6Al4V is very
narrow (≈5 K), and its solidification behavior is similar with a pure
metal, that is, β grains grow epitaxially from the already-solidified
layer quickly. The solidification range of Ti6Al4V-xB alloy increases
with increasing B content, as shown in Fig. 10b. Especially, the solidifica-
tion range increases by about 46 times when the addition of B is 0.08 wt
%.
The relationship between the solidification range and the constitu-
tional undercooling can be given as:
G=Rbðml c0 =DÞ  ½ð1−k0 Þ=k0  ¼ ΔT 0 =D ð2Þ
where G is the temperature gradient, R is the solidification rate, ml is the
liquidus slop, c0 is the solute concentration in wt% and k0 is the solute
partition coefficient, D is the liquid solute diffusivity, and ΔT0 is the so-
lidification range.
The fact is that a large solidification range would favor the onset of
constitutional undercooling [23], as confirmed by Eq. (2), and the co-
lumnar to equiaxed transition (CET). Fig. 11 illustrates the influence of
the solidification range on the prior β grain morphology of the
Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy deposits. Fig. 11a shows that the very narrow
solidification range (ΔT0) and constitutional undercooling (CU) zone
promote the epitaxial growth of β columnar grains. However, when
8 A. Xue et al. / Materials and Design 181 (2019) 107943
Fig. 7. The morphology and orientation of TiB in theTi6Al4V-0.17 wt% B deposit: (a) SEM, (b)TEM, (c) Orientation calibration of the TiB and the α phase.
trace boron (0.08–0.25 wt%) is present (Fig. 11b), it extends the ΔT0 and
CU zone. The increase of ΔT0 of the Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy with in-
creasing B content is mainly caused by the intense partitioning of B in
the liquid [29]. Tamirisakandala et al. [29] has reported that B has low
solubility in Ti6Al4V, which is below 0.02 wt% at room temperature,
and its k0 approaches 0, which cause B partitioning intensely into the
liquid ahead of the solidification front. The enrichment of B reduces
the liquidus temperature, leading to a large CU. The CU will cause insta-
bility at the liquid/solid interface and provide an additional driving force
for the nucleation of the equiaxed β grains ahead of the solid/liquid in-
terface during the solidification. Once nucleated, equiaxed grains would
develop with various volume fractions, depending on the undercooling
ahead of the solid/liquid interface. This can eventually lead to the CET.
Hunt [37] has reported that when the volume fraction of the equiaxed
grains is b0.66%, the equiaxed grains ahead of the moving solidification
interface would be incorporated into the growing columnar grain zone,
which would result in the final columnar grains. When the volume frac-
tion of the equiaxed grains is N49%, the equiaxed grains would block the
columnar growth and the fully equiaxed grains are formed. While the
volume fraction of the equiaxed grains is between 0.66% and 49%, the
microstructure characterized with alternately short columnar dendrites
and equiaxed dendrites are formed. Therefore, the volume fraction of
the β equiaxed grains increases with increasing B content and finally
the alternately short columnar and equiaxed grains in the Ti6Al4V-xB
deposits are formed.
The effectiveness of solute in terms of grain refining ability can be
expressed through the growth restriction factor. For idealized binary
systems, Maxwell and Hellawell [38] have proposed that the
diffusion-limited growth rate of a sphere at a given melt undercooling
and sphere radius is inversely proportional to the thermodynamic
quantity
Q ¼ ml c0 ðk0 −1Þ ð3Þ
According to the Maxwell–Hellawell model [38], the growth restric-
tion factor Q is a good parameter to describe the solute effects on grain
refinement and characterizes the degree of growth restriction for a
small undercooling set independently [29]. And the overall Q in multi-
component alloys is the sum of Q values for the individual solutes
[38]. From the results estimated by Bermingham, the Q values of both
Al and V elements in titanium are close to zero, while the element B,
as one of the most powerful segregation solutes in the titanium system,
has a large Q [27]. Therefore, despite containing 10 wt% of solute, both Al
and V provide negligible growth restriction, while 0.08 wt% B signifi-
cantly promotes grain refinement by the growth restriction mechanism
in Ti6Al4V-xB deposits. However, Tamirisakandala et al. [29] has found
that there is a saturation growth restriction effect in β grain of titanium
alloy with increasing B content, thus the grain refinement extent in
Ti6Al4V-0.08 wt% B deposit is much larger than in Ti6Al4V-xB deposits
with B content higher than 0.08 wt%. Similar phenomena were observed
in WAAM and casting [18,29]. Meanwhile, the TiB phases distributing
along the β dendrites can also restrict the growth of prior β grains via
Zener pinning. Consequently, the β grain size of Ti6Al4V-xB titanium
alloy deposits gradually decreases with increasing B content.
 A. Xue et al. / Materials and Design 181 (2019) 107943
Fig. 8. The tensile properties and anisotropy of Ti6Al4V-xB deposits: the strength and elongation in the transverse (a) and longitudinal directions (b), the anisotropy (c).
4.2. Influence of boron on the β → α solid state phase transformation
It is well known that in Ti6Al4V, the prior β grains initially form and
the α phases then nucleate and grow from the β grain boundaries based
on one of the 12 possible crystallographic variants of the parent β phase.
This is because the prior β grain boundaries usually have higher super-
saturation and free energy than the intragranular, leading to the initially
nucleation of α phases along the β grain boundaries during the cooling.
The αGB grows toward inside of the β grain and meanwhile some α
phases may also nucleate in the intragranular and grow up. The group
of the same α variants constitutes α colony [40]. Therefore, the sizes
of α colony and α lath are affected by the β-to-α transition kinetics
and the β grain size [41].
The size of α colony decreases with increasing B content, which
can be explained from the following two aspects. On the one hand,
according to the formation mechanism of α colony, the decrease of
α colony size with increasing B content is mainly due to the reduc-
tion of the prior β grain size. On the other hand, continuous αGB is
broken by the addition of B, and thus the α colony growing from
αGB and TiB refines.
The decrease of the prior β grain size with increasing B content also
results in the dramatically reduction of the length of α-lath. However, B
belongs to α phase stable element, it can shorten the time of β → α
solid-state phase transformation and increase the growth kinetics of
α-lath. Thus, the average width of α-laths increases slightly with in-
creasing B content. The intragranular α-lath aspect ratio reduces with
increasing B content because TiB is a potent nucleant for heterogeneous
nucleation of the α phase. The calibration of TEM diffraction spots in
Fig. 7 indicates that there is a coherent orientation relationship between
the TiB phase and the adjacent α phase. Moreover, the previous re-
searches [33,42,43] have also found that TiB and its surrounding α
9
phase have a certain crystallographic orientation relationship in
boron-containing titanium alloy, and the α phase should nucleate di-
rectly on TiB. Yang et al. [44] reported only small lattice mismatch
(b3.6%) between the TiB and the α-Ti and proposed that a peritectoid
reaction (β-Ti + TiB → α-Ti) offered an ideal mechanism for promoting
the nucleation of α on TiB.
4.3. Influence of boron on the tensile properties
As shown in Fig. 8，for the Ti6Al4V-xB deposits, with increasing B
content, the strength greatly increases, the elongation decreases gradu- 细化晶粒，
细化α集
ally, the strength anisotropy decreases remarkably and the elongation 束，增加相
anisotropy increases firstly and then decreases dramatically. The in- 界面，阻碍
crease of strength results from two aspects: one is the fine grain 位错运动，
进而增加应
strengthening effect caused by the decrease of β grain and α colony 力集中提高
sizes, and the other is the second phase strengthening effect introduced YS性能
by TiB particles. From the microstructure analysis in Section 3, the addi-
TiB的强化
tion of trace B can significantly refines β grains and α colonies in 机制主要
Ti6Al4V-xB deposits, and thus increases the area of phase boundaries. 是：阻碍位
Therefore, the movement of dislocations is hindered by the more 错运动以及
自身的承载
phase boundaries, inducing the stronger stress concentration and im- 能力；
proving the YS. The Hall–Petch effect in boron-containing Ti6Al4V has
been reported in detail elsewhere and will not be explored further 塑性变形过
程中，细小
here [45]. The reinforcement of TiB is mainly achieved by hindering 针状TiB通
the dislocations and its own load-bearing capacity. During the plastic 过阻碍滑移
deformation, the fine needle-like TiB phase around the boundaries in- 面位错运动
来增加强度
creases the strength by preventing dislocation motion on the slip
plane [31].
A modified shear lag mechanism [46] that accounts for the strength-
ening of non-deformable whiskers in a deforming matrix is invoked
here. The relationship between the strength of Ti6Al4V-xB deposits in
调用别人的理论的写法
10 A. Xue et al. / Materials and Design 181 (2019) 107943

Fig. 9. The tensile fracture morphology of Ti6Al4V-xB deposits in the longitudinal direction: (a, e) Ti6Al4V, (b, f) Ti6Al4V-0.08 wt% B, (c, g) Ti6Al4V-0.17 wt% B, (d, h) Ti6Al4V-0.25 wt% B.

the longitudinal direction and the load-bearing capacity of TiB during aligned TiB whisker-reinforced titanium alloys. After further simplifica-
the tensile testing is analyzed according to the modified shear lag mech- tion, the expression for the UTS is given [50]:
anism. The strength of a composite containing a deformable matrix
(metallic in this case) and non-deformable whiskers can be expressed
~ 0 ; mÞ þ ð1−f Þσ m ðεuts Þ
σ uts ¼ f σ c Iðρ ð5Þ
as [47]:

σ yc ¼ σ ym ½0:5V W ð2 þ l=dÞ þ ð1−V w Þ ð4Þ

In the formula:
−2=3
where σyc is the YS of composite, σym is the YS of matrix, VW is the vol- ~ 0 ; mÞ ≈ ðρ
σ c ¼ ðσ 0 m τL0 =rÞ1=ðmþ1Þ ,Iðρ ~ 0 þ γðmÞÞ
3=2
,where σc is
ume fraction of whiskers, l/d is the whiskers aspect ratio. the characteristic whisker strength. τ is the matrix shear strength. Rele-
Boron is reported to have low solubility in titanium below 0.02 wt% vant TiB whisker properties are their characteristic strength σ0 at some
at room temperature [48]. An estimate of the volume fractions of TiB can gauge length L0 (as if the whiskers were continuous fibers), Weibull
be made on the assumption that all B which is not solution in the tita- modulus m, volume fraction f, radius r and initial average length L
nium reacts to form TiB and the relative densities of the Ti6Al4V and with an assumed Poisson distribution of lengths. Iðρ f0 ; mÞ is a numerical
TiB phases are 4.43 g·cm−3 and 4.54 g·cm−3 [18], respectively. On factor that depends only on the dimensionless initial whisker length ρ ~0
this basis, the estimated volume fraction of the TiB phase is 0.56 vol%, ¼ δc =L ¼ rσ c =Lτ and m, δc = rσc/τ is the characteristic or “critical” whis-
1.11 vol% and 1.67 vol% for Ti6Al4V-0.1 wt% B, Ti6Al4V-0.2 wt% B and ker length. γ(m) is a fitting parameter, σm(εuts) is the UTS of matrix. Re-
Ti6Al4V-0.3 wt% B, respectively. ferring to the research of Boehlert et al. [50], the calculation parameters
pffiffiffi
Based on the model of Curtin and Zhou [49], Boehlert et al. [50] used in Eq. (4) are m=2, σc=8 GPa, γ(m)=1.975, τ ¼ σ m = 3, r=0.15
established a model suitable for predicting the tensile strength of μm.
 A. Xue et al. / Materials and Design 181 (2019) 107943 11

Fig. 10. The solidification behavior of Ti6Al4V-xB alloy calculated using the JMatPro: (a) the solidification curves, (b) the solidification temperature range.

Combining with the size of the TiB shown in Section 3.3, the YS and
UTS of Ti6Al4V-xB alloy in the longitudinal direction are calculated by
Eqs. (4) and (5), respectively, and the variation of absolute and relative
predicted values with increasing B content is shown in Fig. 12. It's obvi-
ous that the absolute and relative predicted values of both YS and UTS
increase with increasing B content, which is consistent with the varia-
tion trend of the measured values. Owing to the prediction error of
the model and the neglect of the microstructure refinement effect in
the model, the deviation between the predicted values and the mea-
sured values is unavoidable. Compared with the UTS, the deviation be-
tween the predicted values and the measured values of the YS is much
smaller, indicating that TiB plays a more important role in the YS than
the UTS during the tensile testing in the longitudinal direction at room
temperature. And it can be deduced that the microstructure refinement
相比去抗拉强度，屈服强度的预测误
差较小，说明TiB对于屈服强度的影
响更大

Fig. 11. The diagram viewing from building direction (BD) and scanning direction (SD) shows how the larger ΔT0 associated with B increases the solid (S) + liquid (L)—mushy zone and CU
zone and changes the β grains morphology in Ti6Al4V-xB deposits. This diagram assumes a constant G and cooling rate in both alloys. (a) Ti6Al4V, (b) Ti6Al4V modified with trace boron
addition. Note that Tx is liquid phase melting temperature at x distance from solid-liquid interface.

Fig. 12. The absolute and relative predicted values of Ti6Al4V-xB deposits in the longitudinal direction: (a) YS, (b) UTS.
 微孔形成位置，原因
12 A. Xue et al. / Materials and Design 181 (2019) 107943
平行于拉伸方向的TiB
断裂成若干个小块
平行于拉伸方向的TiB
能够承受更多的载荷
Fig. 13. Longitudinal sections microstructure of the lateral profile near the tensile fracture: (a) Ti6Al4V, (b) Ti6Al4V-0.08 wt% B, (c) Ti6Al4V-0.17 wt% B, (d) Ti6Al4V-0.25 wt% B.
also makes some contributions to the UTS. Consequently, much more ef-
forts should be paid to improve the prediction model of the UTS of
Ti6Al4V-xB alloy.
The load-bearing of TiB was verified by the microstructure near ten-
sile fracture in longitudinal section. As shown in Fig. 13b–d, the needle
TiB breaks into several fragments under the load when the tensile
load direction is approximately parallel to TiB, and the needle TiB
debonds from the matrix when the direction of tensile load is approxi-
mately perpendicular to TiB. The needle TiB phase paralleling to the
load direction can bear much larger load than in the other directions.
As shown in Fig. 2, most of the needle TiB phases are approximately par-
allel to the longitudinal direction (building direction). Therefore, both
the YS and UTS of Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy in the longitudinal direc-
tion significantly increase with increasing B content owing to the
load-bearing of TiB.
While, compared with the Ti6Al4V, much more grain boundaries
caused by grain refining with the addition of B can play a more impor-
tant role in hindering the movement of dislocations during the tensile
testing of Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy deposits in the transverse direction.
Thus, the tensile strength (include YS and UTS) in the transverse direc-
tion increase with increasing B content for the boundaries hindering ef-
fect. However, the tensile strength of Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy deposits
in the longitudinal direction and transverse direction exhibits anisot-
ropy, that is, the tensile strength (include YS and UTS) in the transverse
direction is much higher than in the longitudinal direction in Ti6Al4V-
xB titanium alloy deposits. 各向异性的原因，主要从晶界α相来说
The anisotropy of Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy deposits is mainly at-
tributed to the αGB and TiB phase distributing along the dendrites. Pre-
vious studies [8,11] have shown that the anisotropy of Ti6Al4V deposits
manufactured by L-DED is mainly caused by the continuous coarse αGB
accompanying with the highly elongated β columnar grains. Because
these segments are unfavourably orientated with the tensile loading
axis in the transverse direction, and conducive to crack nucleation,
void coalescence and crack propagation, that is, it provides a channel
for damage accumulation. When the tensile load axis along the longitu-
dinal direction, which is parallel to the growth direction of β columnar
grains, the hindering effect of limited grain boundaries on dislocation
粗大的晶界α相，在承受横向拉伸载荷时，有利于裂纹的形核，微
孔的聚集以及裂纹的扩展
在承受纵向拉伸载荷时，晶界对于位错的阻碍作用较弱，裂纹容易
沿着晶界α相扩展
movement is very weak and the crack propagation along the αGB easily.
Comparatively speaking, when the tensile load axis along the transverse 相对而言，
direction, which is perpendicular to the growth direction of columnar 横向拉伸时
grains, much more grain boundaries seriously hinder dislocation move- 晶界多，对
ment and the crack propagation perpendicular to the αGB difficultly. Ac- 位错运动的
cordingly, compared with the transverse direction, Ti6Al4V titanium 阻碍大；因
此纵向低强
alloy deposit exhibits the lower-strength and the higher-elongation in
度高塑性
the longitudinal direction.
For Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy, the addition of trace B not only re- B的加入
duces the length of αGB, but also forms TiB discontinuously distributing 消除了晶
along the dendrites. The continuous αGB is almost completely elimi- 界α相
nated and replaced by the fine needle-like brittle phase TiB with in-
creasing B content. Although the needle-like TiB phase can bear the
load during the tensile testing of Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy in the longi-
tudinal direction, the bearing capacity of the fine needle-like TiB phase
is limited. Consequently, the tensile strength in the longitudinal direc-
tion is still lower than in the transverse direction, meanwhile, the
strength anisotropy of Ti6Al4V-xB decrease with increasing B content.
That is to say, the fine needle-like TiB phase weakens the harmful effect 纵向拉伸
of continuous coarse αGB on the strength anisotropy of Ti6Al4V-xB de- 的强度为
posits to some extent. Especially, the refinement extent of microstruc- 何依旧低
于横向？
ture by B is the largest and the distribution of TiB is the most uniform
when the addition of B is 0.25 wt%. Therefore, the amount and align di-
rection of TiB phases and phase boundaries in the longitudinal and
transverse directions are similar, resulting in the almost equivalent con- 加B后各
tribution of the load-bearing capability from TiB and the hindering ef- 项异性为
fect on dislocation movement from phase boundaries in both 什么减小
directions, and finally, the anisotropy of YS and UTS are reduced greatly
to 2.45% and 2.13%, respectively.
The poor deformation compatibility among αGB, intragranular α 塑性低的原
lath, the fine needle-like brittle TiB phase and the β matrix is the main 因：连续的
reason causing the decrease of elongation in Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy 晶界α相，
deposits. Although the continuous coarse αGB becomes shorter, thinner 具有织构特
and even disappeared with increasing B content, meanwhile, the fine 征的α集
needle-like brittle TiB phase distributing along the dendrites generates. 束，脆性细
针状TiB
The dislocation piling up surround the TiB results in local stress concen-
相,以及β基
trations when the load reaches the YS of Ti6Al4V-xB deposits. The TiB 体
 先总的说，塑性差因为啥，再说尽管有有利因素，但是
（不利因素影响更大），再分别解释纵向和横向过程中
TiB是如何影响的；
最后再说尽管降低了，还是满足最低要求，主要还是有
利因素的影响 A. Xue et al. / Materials and Design 181 (2019) 107943
breaks into several fragments after the local stress exceeds the UTS of
TiB when the TiB along the load direction during the tensile testing in
the longitudinal direction and the stress is released partly. Then the bro-
ken TiB moves with the β matrix to keep deformation compatibility,
crack propagation quickly and the specimen failure until the load
reaches the UTS of Ti6Al4V-xB deposits. Compared with α phase
(~4 GPa), the harder TiB phase (~21 GPa) makes the deformation com-
patibility with the β matrix is much more difficult, thus the elongation
in the longitudinal direction decreases with increasing B content [51].
The TiB does not break but debonds from the β matrix during the tensile
testing when the TiB is perpendicular to the direction of tensile load in
the transverse direction, which significantly deteriorate the deforma-
tion compatibility and result in the large crack nucleation at the inter-
face between the TiB and the matrix. The crack propagation quickly
横向拉伸的 and the specimen fracture until the load reaches the UTS of Ti6Al4V-
延伸率随B xB deposits. Therefore, the elongation in the transverse direction de-
的增加而减 creases with increasing B content. However, it is worth noting that the
小
elongation of Ti6Al4V-0.08B does not decrease much, especially in the
longitudinal direction, which is still far exceeding the minimum ASTM
requirements for the forging Ti6Al4V. This is mainly attributed to the
β grain refinement and the reduction of α phase aspect ratio caused
by the addition of B, which increases the deformation compatibility dur-
ing the tensile testing, and ensures the elongation to some extent.
Besides, it should be noted that the elongation in the longitudinal di-
rection and transverse direction also exhibits anisotropy. Compared
为什么塑性
with the longitudinal direction, the elongation in the transverse direc-
的各项异性
随B含量增
tion is lower owing to the poorer deformation compatibility between
the TiB and the matrix. However, the elongation anisotropy of
加先增大后
Ti6Al4V-xB deposits increases initially and then decreases largely with
减小
increasing B content. The TiB phases mainly distribute along the prior
0.17%以下 β grain boundaries and some αGB are still remained when the addition
时TiB主要 of B is b0.17 wt%, the TiB highly aligned greatly deteriorates the defor-
分布在晶界
mation compatibility of the deposits. The microstructure is significantly
上，同时晶
界α相依旧 refined by B, resulting in the almost completely uniform distribution of
TiB when the addition of B is 0.25 wt%, the deformation compatibility
存在
between the TiB and the matrix become extremely poor in the longitu-
0.25%时， dinal direction and transverse direction. Therefore, the elongation an-
晶界α相几 isotropy of Ti6Al4V-xB deposits initially increases and then decreases
乎消失， largely with increasing B content. Especially, the elongation anisotropy
TiB多而分
is reduced to 6.89% when the addition of B is 0.25 wt%.
布均匀，恶
化协调变形 It is worth noting that the addition of B in Ti6Al4V deposit produces
much finer and more uniform distributed TiB phases when comparing
能力
with those in the castings and WAAMed parts owing to the larger
cooling rate (102–105 K/s) during the LSF process. Therefore, the detri-
mental effect of TiB on the tensile properties and anisotropy is much
smaller in the parts fabricated by LSF than in the castings and WAAMed
parts. As a result of this, the addition of B can reduce the anisotropy of
Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy deposits. However, the anisotropy of
Ti6Al4V-xB titanium alloy deposits has still not been completely elimi-
nated owing to the existence of the fine needle-like brittle TiB phase
with discontinuous distribution between the dendrites. The decrease
in the mechanical anisotropy may be achievable via the finer and
more uniform dispersed TiB produced by the higher cooling rate in
metal additive manufacturing processes. In addition, compared with
castings, the finer and more uniform distributed TiB phases in the
Ti6Al4V-xB deposits may also increase the fatigue strength and fatigue
life when the content of B is b0.09 wt% [52].
TC4断裂模
In Ti6Al4V, the microscopic pores mainly emerge at α colonies, the
式是微孔聚 interface between the α lath and the β matrix, or inside α lath, as
集和生长 shown in Fig. 13a. This is mainly due to that the α/β phase interface
微孔主要出 can effectively hinder dislocation motion during the tensile deformation
现在相界面 process, causing the dislocations pile-up at the interface, resulting in the
和α集束内 local stress concentration and the plastic deformation. When the stress
这是由于相 exceeds the interface strength, the micropores form to release the
界面能够阻 stress. As the strain increases, the micropores continue to connect, accu-
碍位错滑 mulate, and grow until the specimen shrinks and fractures, and finally
移，位错在
相界面处塞
当应力集中到一定程度，超过界面强度，微孔形成释放压力；当应力继
积，造成应
续增加，微孔相连接，积累和生长，直到试样断裂。最终不同形状和尺
力集中
寸的韧窝出现在断裂界面上
13
some dimples of different shapes and sizes appear on the fracture sur-
face. Therefore, the fracture mechanism of the Ti6Al4V is the growth
and accumulation of micropores.
In Ti6Al4V-xB, micropores are mainly formed around the TiB phases
as shown in Fig. 13b–d. The dislocations in the grains are activated to
slip and piled-up around the TiB, causing the stress concentration 位错滑
when the tensile stress reaches the critical shear stress of the favorable 移，在
TiB附近
orientation grains during the tensile testing. On the one hand, the TiB 塞积，引
phases break into several fragments under the load during the tensile 起应力集
testing in the longitudinal direction and move with the β matrix, the 中
cracks nucleation in TiB. On the other hand, the TiB phases debond
from the β matrix under the load during the tensile testing in the trans- 纵向拉
verse direction, large cracks nucleation at the interface between the TiB 伸，TiB
断裂，随
and the β matrix. The crack propagation quickly and the specimens frac-
β基体移
ture until the load reaches the UTS of Ti6Al4V-xB alloy. 动，裂纹
在TiB上
5. Conclusions 形核
In this work, the influence mechanisms of trace B (up to 0.25 wt%) 横向拉
on the microstructure, tensile properties and their anisotropy of 伸，TiB
与基体脱
Ti6Al4V titanium alloy deposits were revealed. The main conclusions
离，大的
obtained are as follows: 裂纹产生
(1) With increasing B content, the prior β grains morphologies were 裂纹快速
changed from columnar to the alternately short columnar and 扩展，在
equiaxed. In addition, the prior β columnar grains became finer. 载荷达到
Especially, compared with the Ti6Al4V deposit, the average 抗拉强度
width of the prior β columnar grains in the Ti6Al4V-0.08 wt% B 后试样断
裂
deposit was reduced by about one order of magnitude.
(2) The addition of trace B not only shortened or even eliminated the
αGB but also reduced the size of α colony and the aspect ratio of
intragranular α lath. Compared with the Ti6Al4V deposit, the av-
erage length and aspect ratio of the intragranular α phases were
reduced by about 43% and 33%, respectively, when the addition
of B reached 0.08 wt%.
(3) The TiB phases intermittently distributing between the dendrites
depicted the dendritic morphology. The TiB phases presented
equiaxed-like, fine-needle-like, plate-like and hollow hexagon
morphologies, but mainly fine-needle-like.
(4) With increasing B content, the YS and UTS increased in both di-
rections, but the elongation decreased. Both the tensile strength
and elongation in the transverse direction and longitudinal direc-
tion exceeded the minimum ASTM requirements for forging
Ti6Al4V when the B content was b0.08 wt%. Compared with the
Ti6Al4V deposit, the addition of 0.08 wt% B increased the UTS
in the transverse direction and longitudinal direction by 6.32%
and 7.18%, respectively, to 1108 MPa and 1062 MPa. The EL
was reduced by 13.23% and 9.96%, respectively, to 9.05% and
10.58%.
(5) Compared with the transverse direction, the tensile properties of
Ti6Al4V-xB deposits in the longitudinal direction were character-
ized by lower-strength and higher-elongation. With increasing B
content, the strength anisotropy decreased gradually, and the
elongation anisotropy initially increased and then decreased dra-
matically. Especially, when the addition of B was 0.25 wt%, the
YS, UTS and EL anisotropy index r were reduced to 2.45%, 2.13%
and 7.40%, respectively.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Aitang Xue: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodol-
ogy, Validation, Visualization, Writing - original draft. Xin Lin: Concep-
tualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision,
Validation, Resources, Project administration, Funding acquisition,
Writing - review & editing. Lilin Wang: Formal analysis, Investigation,
Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing - review & editing. Jian
14 A. Xue et al. / Materials and Design 181 (2019) 107943
Wang: Formal analysis, Writing - review & editing. Weidong Huang:
Conceptualization, Resources, Funding acquisition.
Acknowledgement
We thank Yongming Ren and Yunlong Hu for the useful discussion
and Writing - editing, and Xufei Lu for the Writing - editing. This work
was supported by China National Key Research and Development Plan
Project (2016YFB1100104).
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