Fatigue Behavior of 51 Vol.% Porous Ti-6Al-4V Alloy
Porous titanium alloys are widely used as implant materials due to their mechanical behavior similar to that of bone. In addition, fatigue properties of implant materials are especially important since medical implants mostly exposed to cyclic compressive loading conditions. In this study, porous Ti-6Al-4V alloy has been produced via sintering at 12000C for 2 hours employing magnesium space holder technique. Porosity of the produced foams were measured according to Archimedes’ principle and calculated to be in the range of 51 ± 1 vol.%. Mechanical properties of the foams were characterized by monotonic compressive and compression-compression mode fatigue tests. The compressive strength and elastic modulus of the foams were determined to be 167 ± 18 MPa and 12 ± 1 GPa respectively. Fatigue tests conducted with a frequency of 5 Hz and a constant stress ratio (σmin/σmax) of 0.1 revealed that porous Ti-6Al-4V alloys have a fatigue limit of approximately 135 MPa. Furthermore fracture surfaces of the foams were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM).