Simultaneously improving strength and ductility by direct aging heat treatment in direct energy deposited Ti–Cu alloys with heterogeneous structure
摘要
It is eternal pursuit to continually break through higher strength–ductility synergy by designing heterogeneous structure in the additively manufactured titanium alloys. In the present study, for the Ti–4Cu titanium alloys fabricated by gas metal arc welding-based direct energy deposition (GMAW-DED), the direct aging heat treatment (DAHT) is designed to optimize the heterogeneous structure comprising of martensite α (α′) and pearlite (P). The results indicate that, with the DAHT of 600 °C, both the yield strength and elongation have been improved, reaching values of 1022 MPa and 14.8%, respectively. The strength–ductility synergy is outstanding among the already reported Ti–Cu alloys with various alloy compositions and various manufacturing processes. The DAHT induces a more balanced α’-P phase ratio (45.7–54.3%) and a larger α′−P hardness difference (3.8 GPa). The strengthening behavior is owing to the increased hetero-deformation-induced (HDI) strengthening of 89 MPa and the increased precipitate strengthening of 44 MPa. The toughening behavior is owing to the increased HDI hardening as manifested by increased ΔρGNDs of 1.76 × 1015 m−2, and the increased forest hardening as manifested by decreased lattice resistance and increased deformation coordination. The present study offers a novel insight for designing heterogeneous structure while maintaining compositional plainification.