Microstructure engineering of TiAl-based refractory intermetallics within power-down directional solidification process

Abstract

Abstract The work is aimed at the study of the formation and refinement of primary microstructure appearing in the refractory lightweight structural TiAl-based alloy of Ti–46Al–8Nb (at.%) nominal composition. For tailored microstructure development, the Directional Solidification (DS) of pre-synthesized alloy was performed in the vertical multizone resistive electro-furnace by power-down technique in pure argon environment. Both columnar-dendrite, and equiaxed-granular reproducible as-cast microstructures have been produced in DS ingots, basing on Columnar-to-Equiaxed Transition (CET) diagram and experimental exploration. Particular attention was paid further to equiaxed microstructure improvement by combination of modifying doping of alloy with boron grain refiner and DS processing. As a result the perfect inoculated microstructure of Ti–44Al–7Nb–2B (at.%) ingots was produced with 100 μm mean grain diameter, low scattering of dimensional grain characteristics and high tolerance to DS process parameters variation.