Strain ageing and yield plateau phenomena in γ-TiAl based alloys containing boron

Abstract

There has been considerable interest over the past few years in {gamma}-TiAl based alloys since they offer a combination of low density and useful mechanical properties at temperatures higher than those possible with conventional titanium alloys. However, there are still serious limitations to their use in engineering components due to their limited ductility and fracture toughness. Much of the recent work has been focused on improving the room temperature ductility of these materials, and a significant part of the work has been involved with studying the effects of thermo-mechanical processing (TMP) and alloying. One of the alloying additions which has received much attention is boron. Addition of boron ({ge}0.5 at.%) leads to refined as-cast grain structures and can increase the strength and ductility of these alloys. If boron does segregate to grain boundaries, it would be expected that segregation would also occur at dislocations, which can result in solute locking and yield point phenomena. Nakano and Umakoshi`s results show some signs of this, with regions of distinct upward curvature in stress-strain curves for boron-containing material, although the flow stress was always increasing with strain. Evidence of strain ageing in TiAl alloys containing boron has also been reported by Wheeler etmore » al., and the work reported here also suggests that boron can act to produce solute locking of glide dislocations in a different class of near {gamma}-TiAl alloys.« less