Dynamic behavior and microstructural evolution of TiAl alloys tailored via phase and grain size

As a kind of promising aerospace material, TiAl alloys need to withstand extreme conditions such as high-rate impact loads and high temperatures. The mechanism on the failure and fracture of TiAl alloys under extreme conditions is related with the microstructure, including phase and grain size. In the present research, two kinds of TiAl alloys tailored with different microstructures, near lamellar (NL) and near gamma (NG), were fabricated by thermo-mechanical treatment. Microstructural characterization was analyzed by XRD and EBSD. The dynamic behavior of the TiAl alloys under different temperatures ranging from 293 K–873 K was investigated by a split Hopkinson pressure bar. The strain rate sensitivity and temperature sensitivity was analyzed. The microstructural evolution was concerned to understand the failure mechanism of the two kinds of the TiAl alloys. The NG-TiAl had the homogeneous deformation with synergy effect between homogeneous equiaxed grain and lamellar structure, and no failure occurred in NG-TiAl. However, the NL-TiAl showed heterogeneous deformation with both “orange peel effect” and cracks, which was attributed to large equiaxed grain and brittle γ-lamellae with similar orientation. Further, the cracks were easily nucleated and propagated from the interface between γ-lamellae structures, especially in the γ-lamellae structures parallel with the loading direction. Finally, the modified Johnson–Cook constitutive model was proposed to describe the deformation behavior, in which both strain rate hardening and temperature softening terms were expressed as a function of strain and strain rate.