After almost three decades of intensive fundamental research and development activities, intermetallic titanium aluminides based on the ordered γ-TiAl phase have found applications in automotive and aircraft engine industry. The advantages of this class of innovative high-temperature materials are their low density and their good strength and creep properties up to 750 °C as well as their good oxidation and burn resistance. Advanced TiAl alloys are complex multi-phase alloys which can be processed by ingot or powder metallurgy as well as precision casting methods. Each process leads to specific microstructures which can be altered and optimized by thermo-mechanical processing and/or subsequent heat treatments. The background of these heat treatments is at least twofold, i.e., concurrent increase of ductility at room temperature and creep strength at elevated temperature. This review gives a general survey of engineering γ-TiAl based alloys, but concentrates on β-solidifying γ-TiAl based alloys which show excellent hot-workability and balanced mechanical properties when subjected to adapted heat treatments. The content of this paper comprises alloy design strategies, progress in processing, evolution of microstructure, mechanical properties as well as application-oriented aspects, but also shows how sophisticated ex situ and in situ methods can be employed to establish phase diagrams and to investigate the evolution of the micro- and nanostructure during hot-working and subsequent heat treatments.

Design, Processing, Microstructure, Properties, and Applications of Advanced Intermetallic TiAl Alloys†

During the past decade considerable research efforts have been directed towards achieving balanced engineering properties of two-phase γ-titanium aluminide alloys for future applications as structural materials. For optimization of mechanical properties such as yield and creep strengths, tensile ductility and fracture resistance, a basic understanding of the temperature dependent micromechanisms of plasticity and fracture, and their interplay with various microstructural constituents is required. In this review article, the current knowledge on dislocation types and slip systems, the development of deformation substructures, factors controlling the mobility and multiplication of dislocations, interface related plasticity, solid solution and precipitate strengthening mechanisms as well as microscopic aspects of creep and fracture will be addressed. These topics will be related to specific microstructures and associated engineering properties.

Microstructure and deformation of two-phase γ-titanium aluminides

The physics of fatigue crack initiation

With the presentation of a theory of liquid alloys, we have now assembled all the necessary tools for the ab initio construction of an alloy phase diagram.

Alloy Phase Diagrams

The present article will describe aspects of the science and technology of titanium aluminide (TiAl) alloy system and summarise the low and high temperature mechanical and environmental properties exhibited by different alloy generations. In terms of processing developments, conventional gravity casting and near net shape casting would be discussed in detail. Also newer and non-conventional forging and additive manufacturing routes would be briefly highlighted. Extensive investigations of TiAl alloys have enabled their commercial implementation in aerospace and automotive industries. The GEnx™ engine is the first commercial aircraft engine that used TiAl (alloy 48–2–2) for their low pressure turbine blades. Among non GE engines, recently, new β-stabilised TiAl alloy (TNM) is being used to manufacture LPT blades for PW1100G™ engines. TiAl materials and design processes can reduce engine weight and improve engine performance.

TiAl alloys in commercial aircraft engines

Crystallographic fatigue crack initiation in nickel-based superalloy René 88DT at elevated temperature

Microstructural extremes and the transition from fatigue crack initiation to small crack growth in a polycrystalline nickel-base superalloy

A study was conducted to investigate the effect of solidification rate on the growth behavior of small fatigue cracks in a 319-type aluminum alloy, a common Al-Si-Cu alloy used in automotive castings. Fatigue specimens were taken from cast material that underwent a hot isostatic pressing (HIP) process in order to eliminate shrinkage pores and to facilitate the observation of surface-initiated cracks by replication. Naturally initiated surface cracks ranging in length from 17 µm to 2 mm were measured using a replication technique. Growth rates of the small cracks were calculated as a function of the elastic stress-intensity-factor range (ΔK). Long-crack growth-rate data (10 mm≤length≤25 mm) were obtained from compact-tension (CT) specimens, and comparison to the small-crack data indicates the existence of a significant small-crack effect in this alloy. The solidification rate is shown to have a significant influence on small-crack growth behavior, with faster solidification rates resulting in slower growth rates at equivalent ΔK levels. A stress-level effect is also observed for both solidification rates, with faster growth rates occurring at higher applied-stress amplitudes at a given ΔK. A crack-growth relation proposed by Nisitani and others is modified to give reasonable correlation of small-crack growth data to different solidification rates and stress levels.

The effect of solidification rate on the growth of small fatigue cracks in a cast 319-type aluminum alloy

The effects of particle size, volume fraction and matrix strength on the stress-controlled axial fatigue behavior and the probability of particle fracture were evaluated for 2124 aluminum alloy reinforced with SiC particles. Average particle sizes of 2, 5, 9 and 20/~m and volume fractions of 0.10, 0.20 and 0.35 were examined for four different microstructural conditions. Tensile and yield strengths and fatigue life were substantially higher in the reinforced alloys. Strength and fatigue life increased as reinforcement particle size decreased and volume fraction loading increased. The frequency of particle fracture during crack propagation was found to be dependent on matrix strength, particle size and volume fraction and on maximum crack tip stress intensity. Particle fracture can be rationalized, phenomenologically, by the application of modified process zone models, originally derived for static fracture processes, and weakest link statistics which account for the dependence of matrix yield strength and flow behavior and particle strength on the probability of particle fracture during monotonic fracture and fatigue crack propagation.

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Particle size, volume fraction and matrix strength effects on fatigue behavior and particle fracture in 2124 aluminum-SiCp composites

In this paper, we report the use of the feedback signal of an ultrasonic fatigue system to dynamically deduce fatigue damage accumulation via changes in the nonlinear ultrasonic parameter. The applicability of this parameter in comparison to the resonant frequency for assessment of fatigue damage accumulation in a wrought aluminum alloy has been demonstrated, without the need for coupling fluids or independent generation of incident ultrasonic waves. The ultrasonic nonlinearity increased and the resonant frequency of the system decreased with initiation and propagation of the major crack. The nonlinear ultrasonic parameter shows greater sensitivity to damage accumulation than the resonant frequency. The number of cycles for crack propagation, estimated based on the changes in the nonlinear ultrasonic parameter, is in very good agreement with calculated crack growth rates based on the fractography studies.

J. Wayne Jones

Papers

Crystallographic fatigue crack initiation in nickel-based superalloy René 88DT at elevated temperature

Microstructural extremes and the transition from fatigue crack initiation to small crack growth in a polycrystalline nickel-base superalloy

The effect of solidification rate on the growth of small fatigue cracks in a cast 319-type aluminum alloy

Particle size, volume fraction and matrix strength effects on fatigue behavior and particle fracture in 2124 aluminum-SiCp composites

Nonlinear ultrasonics for in situ damage detection during high frequency fatigue