A Study on Modelling the Superplastic Behaviour of Ti54M Alloy

Superplastic forming is a cost-effective process for manufacturing complex-shaped titanium parts. TIMETAL® 54M (Ti54M) is a titanium alloy that has been commercially available since 2003, however studies on modelling its superplastic behaviour are scarce in the literature. Finite element modelling can be used to enable the manufacturing of complex-shaped parts economically as the number of experimental trials can be reduced. This paper illustrates the implementation of a microstructural-based model to predict the superplastic behaviour of Ti54M alloy during forming at elevated temperature. The parameters of the material model are derived in this work for the Ti54M alloy. A Matlab script has been developed for the calculation and calibration of the material model parameters based on material experimental data. The material model was implemented into the finite element commercial software Abaqus by means of a user-defined subroutine. The finite element calculations take into account also grain size evolution. Finally, a pressure profile was numerically calculated for forming a non-commercial part via superplastic forming targeting optimal conditions for the material.

Superplastic Behaviour of Ti54M and Ti64

Even though TIMETAL-54M (Ti-5Al-4V-0.6Mo-0.4Fe or Ti54M) has been commercially available for over 10 years, further study of its superplastic properties is still required in order to assess its applicability within the aerospace industry as a potential replacement for other commercial titanium alloys such as Ti-6Al-4V (Ti64). Ti54M is expected to obtain superplastic characteristics at a lower temperature than Ti64 due to its lower beta-transus temperature. The superplastic forming (SPF) capability of alloys that can be formed at lower temperatures has always attracted the interest of industry as it reduces the grain growth and alpha-case formation, leading to longer life for costly high temperature resistant forming tools. In this work, the SPF characteristics of both Ti54M and Ti64 have been examined by conducting tensile tests according to the ASTM E2448 standard within a range of temperatures and strain values at a fixed strain rate of 1 × 10-4/S. A high strain rate sensitivity and uniform deformation at high strains are key indicators in selecting the optimum superplastic temperature. This was observed at 815˚C and 925˚C for Ti54M and Ti64 respectively. The tensile samples were water quenched to freeze their respective microstructure evolution following superplastic deformation and SEM images were captured for grain size and volume fraction of alpha-phase analyses. A slightly higher alpha-grain growth rate was observed during superplastic deformation of Ti64. The initial fine-grain microstructure of Ti54M (~1.6 micron) resulted in a final microstructure with an average grain size of ~3.4 micron and optimum the alpha/beta ratio. Both the fine-grained microstructure and increased amount of beta-volume fraction promotes the superplastic behaviour of Ti54M by grain boundary sliding (GBS). Thus superplastic properties were observed for Ti54M at a lower temperature (~100˚C) than for Ti64.

Effect of Different Initial Lamellar Plate Thicknesses on Grain Refinement and Superplastic Behaviour in HPT-Processed Ti-6Al-4V Alloy

Ti-6Al-4V alloy was heated to above the β phase transformation temperature with two different cooling speeds: air cooling and furnace cooling, in order to generate a full thin lamellar structure and a fully coarse lamellar structure, respectively. Then the alloy in two heat-treated conditions was processed at room temperature up to 10 turns by high-pressure torsion (HPT) processing. Investigations were carried out to study the effect of the different initial lamellar plate thicknesses on the microstructure development during HPT processing, and the corresponding superplastic behaviour at the selected low testing temperatures of 773 - 923 K.

Effect of Homogenization Treatment on Superplastic Properties of Aluminum Based Alloy with Minor Zr and Sc Additions

Effect of one-step and two-step homogenization treatment on precipitation of Al3(Sc,Zr) dispersoids, grain structure after annealing of cold rolled sheets and superplastic behaviour of a novel Al-Mg based alloy were studied. Heterogeneous nucleation of Al3(Sc,Zr) phase on dislocations and subboundaries dominated at one-step annealing and both homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation of Al3(Sc,Zr) were observed at two-step annealing modes. It was shown that two-step treatment mode provides high density of Al3(Sc,Zr) precipitates and 650 % of elongation at the constant strain rate of 10-2 s-1 in the studied alloy.