Effect of Microstructure Change on the Crack Formation of Heat Treated Ti-Al Intermetallic Compound

Heat treatments were conducted under several conditions in order to clarify the effect of holding temperature, time and cooling rate on microstructure of Ti-46Al-7Nb-0.7Cr-0.2Ni-0.1Si and Ti-45Al-10V (mol%) alloys. Indentation tests were performed in order to understand the effect of beta phase precipitation on crack formation of microstructure controlled Ti-45Al-10V alloy. As for Ti-46Al-7Nb-0.7Cr-0.2Ni-0.1Si alloy, phase condition on several temperatures was estimated experimentally. It is found that the cooling rate where the massive transformation occurs ranges from -300K/s to -5K/s. Furthermore, in order to obtain the fully lamellar structure, the alloy should be cooled slower than -1K/s. As regards the heat treatment on Ti-45Al-10V alloy, fully lamellar structure was formed by cooling from (alfa+gama) two phase state. However, beta precipitates were observed near the lamellar colony boundaries when the material was cooled from (beta+gama) two phase state. Though the cracks are not observed at the specimen cooled at -8x10-2K/s from (alfa+gama) two phase state, the cracks induced by Vickers indentation are observed in most of the heat treated specimens