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Tensile Behavior of Ti-6Al-4V alloy at Elevated Temperatures

Conference Paper · December 2014

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MMMPAP1021

Tensile Behavior of Ti-6Al-4V alloy at Elevated Temperatures

Sanjeev Kumar, K. Chattopadhyay, Vakil Singh

Department of Metallurgical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (BHU)
Varanasi-221005 (India)
Abstract
In the present investigation, effect of temperature on tensile behavior of Ti-6Al-4V was evaluated over the temperature range from
25 to 500 ºC at a constant strain rate of 10˗3s-1. Tensile specimens were solution treated at 950 ºC for 1 hour in argon atmosphere
and cooled in air. The microstructure of the alloy in solution treated condition comprised of bimodal structure, with globular
primary α and lamellar transformed β phase. As expected the yield and ultimate tensile strength continuously decreased with
increase in temperature, and ductility (% elongation) increased with rise in temperature. The work-hardening was found to
increase up to 300 ºC and decrease above 300 ºC. There was ductile fracture at all the test temperatures.

Keywords: Ti-6Al-4V, tensile strength, work-hardening, ductile fracture.

Introduction

Ti-6Al-4V is known as workhorse titanium alloy because of its wide applications in aerospace industries, chemical
processing plants and medical devices [1]. It possesses excellent combination of mechanical properties, specific
strength and corrosion resistance. Ti-6Al-4V is commercially used in gas turbine engine up to the test temperature of
350 ºC. Industrial applications usually limit Ti-6Al-4V use to 400 °C [2]. It is a two phase alloy consisting of primary
α with HCP crystal structure and metastable β with BCC structure. Titanium undergoes allotropic phase
transformation from α (HCP) to β (BCC) at 882 ºC [3]. The structural titanium alloys are classified mainly into three
categories; α, β, and α + β alloys. The α alloys of titanium categorized as commercially pure titanium, is relatively low
in strength but offers a good combination of corrosion resistance, weldability and creep resistance [4]. The β alloys are
responsive to forging and also offer excellent fracture toughness. The dual phase (α + β) alloys offer a combination of
excellent ductility and strength with proper heat treatment to make them stronger than α phase and β phase alloys [5].
It is well known that mechanical behavior of the alloy Ti-6Al-4V is highly dependent on test temperature [6, 7]. A
large amount of reports have shown that mechanical properties of the titanium alloys are strongly influenced by the
volume fraction, grain size, morphology and distribution of the precipitation which in turn depends on the
composition, hot working processing and heat treatment of the alloy [8, 9]. Lopez et al. [10] have reported that tensile
stress decreases at higher temperatures, but the strain hardening of the material is not affected. Their temperature
range was -10 to 70 ºC. The aim of present study is to investigate the effect of temperature on the tensile behavior of
Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The results are discussed in terms of flow engineering stress-strain curves.

Experimental Procedure

Ti-6Al-4V alloy with nominal composition of Ti-6.24Al-4.11V-0.015C-0.1634O-0.0042N-0.0052H-0.04Fe was

received, in hot rolled and annealed condition as rods of 50 mm diameter from M/S MIDHANI Hyderabad. It was
given solution treatment (ST) at 950 °C for 1 hour in argon atmosphere, followed by air cooling to room temperature.
Microstructure of the alloy was examined by optical microscope following etching by Krolls reagent 2HF + 6HNO3 +
92H2O (volume percent).

SEM was carried out using FESEM Quanta 200FEG at 30 kV. Cylindrical tensile specimens with gauge length and
diameter of 15.5 mm and 4.5 mm, respectively, were machined from the heat treated rod and mechanically polished
with emery paper to remove machining marks, if any. Tensile tests were conducted at various temperatures at a
nominal strain rate of 10-3s-1 using a 100kN screw-driven Instron™ Universal Testing Machine (Model 4206).
116 Proceeding of the International Conference on Multifunctional Materials, Structures and Applications [ICMMSA-2014]

Results and Discussions

Microstructural Characterization
The microstructural study of the alloy Ti-6Al-4V in solution treated was carried out by optical and scanning electron
microscope. SEM micrographs and optical microstructures showed similar feature of bimodal structure with globular
primary-α phase and lamellar transformed β-phase (Fig. 1). A duplex microstructure consisting of equiaxed primary α
in the matrix of transformed β was observed. The primary α grains were mostly associated with prior β grain
boundaries. The volume fraction of α and β phase was 66% and 34%, respectively.

a b

Fig. 1: Optical (a) and SEM (b) micrograph of Ti-6Al-4V alloy in solution treated condition.

Tensile behavior
Tensile tests were carried out at various temperatures, ranging room temperature to 500 ºC, at a strain rate of 10-3s-1.
Tensile engineering stress-strain curves of the alloy Ti-6Al-4V are shown in Fig. 2. It was observed that yield strength
(0.2% offset) continuously decreased from 907 to 485 MPa from room temperature to 500 ºC (Fig. 3). Similarly,
tensile strength was found to continuously decrease from 995 MPa to 552 MPa (Fig. 4).

Fig. 2: Tensile engineering stress- strain curves of the Fig. 3: Yield strength vs temperature curve of the Ti-6Al-4V.
Ti-6Al-4V at various temperatures

Between room temperature (RT) and 500 °C, uniform and total elongation were not very sensitive to temperature.
There was marked increment of total elongation at 500 °C (Fig. 5). It was observed that uniform elongation and total
elongation decreased with temperature. Marmy et al. [11] reported that the uniform elongation decrease with increase
in temperature. Log-log plot of the true stress (σ) vs true plastic strain (ερ) for the different conditions is shown in Fig.
6. The strain hardening exponent (n) was determined from the slopes of the plots and the strength coefficient (K) was
determined from the intercept on y axis at ερ =1, based on the equation σ= Kεnp [12]. Strain hardening increased with
temperature; however, it drastically decreased at 500 ºC temperature. Furthermore, there was no evidence of dynamic
strain aging at any temperature. Strength coefficient continuously increased with increase in temperature.
Tensile Behavior of Ti-6Al-4V alloy at Elevated Temperature 117

Fig. 4: Variation of tensile strength with temperature. Fig. 5: Variation of elongation with temperature.

Fig. 6: Plots of σ vs εp on log scale for different Fig. 7: Variation of strain hardening exponent with
temperatures. temperature.

Fracture behavior
The fracture surfaces of tensile tested samples were examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Ductile
fracture was observed in all the conditions. It may be seen from these fractographs that dimple morphology was
predominant (Fig. 7), at room temperature as well as at high temperatures. Further, the dimple size was found to
increase with temperature.

a b

Fig. 7: Fracture surface of the tensile tested Ti-6Al-4V alloy at (a) room temperature (b) 500 ºC
temperature.
118 Proceeding of the International Conference on Multifunctional Materials, Structures and Applications [ICMMSA-2014]

Conclusions

The following conclusions are drawn from this study:

Tensile strength was continuously decreased with rise in temperature.
Ductility was found to increase with temperature.
Ductile fractured was observed in all the conditions.
The dimple size of fractured surface was increased with increase in temperature.

References

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