Microstructure and room-temperature tensile property of Ti-5.7Al-4.0Sn-3.5Zr-0.4Mo-0.4Si-0.4Nb-1.0Ta-0.05C with near equiaxed β grain fabricated by laser directed energy deposition technique

Near-equiaxed β grain was achieved in the near-α Ti60 (Ti-5.7Al-4.0Sn-3.5Zr-0.4Mo-0.4Si-0.4Nb-1.0Ta-0.05C) titanium alloy via laser directed energy deposition (LDED). The microstructural evolution along the building direction and the room-temperature tensile properties along the horizontal and vertical directions (building direction) were systematically studied through SEM and OM. EBSD and XRD were utilized to accurately demonstrate the texture of the α and β phases. The results showed that the α phase presented a low texture intensity, which was ascribed to the weak textured β grain with near-equiaxed morphology, since there are Burgers orientation relationships during the β→α transition. In addition, numerical simulation, combined with the CET curve of Ti60 alloy considering the effect of multi-composition, was utilized to elucidate the formation mechanism of the near-equiaxed β grains. Furthermore, according to the solidification theory, we proposed that the solidification temperature range ΔTf was more accurate than the growth restriction factor Q in predicting the formation tendency of equiaxed β grain in different titanium alloys. Tensile results showed that the horizontal and vertical samples had similar strength, while the former exhibited larger elongation than the latter. The effect of the near-equiaxed β grain and the internal α phase on mechanical properties were revealed at last.