In situ design of advanced titanium alloy with concentration modulations by additive manufacturing
Tianlong Zhang, Zhenghua Huang, Tao Yang, Haojie Kong, Junhua Luan, Anding Wang, Dong Wang, Way Kuo, Yunzhi Wang, C.T. Liu
Abstract
Additive manufacturing is a revolutionary technology that offers a different pathway for material processing and design. However, innovations in either new materials or new processing technologies can seldom be successful without a synergistic combination. We demonstrate an in situ design approach to make alloys spatially modulated in concentration by using laser-powder bed fusion. We show that the partial homogenization of two dissimilar alloy melts—Ti-6Al-4V and a small amount of 316L stainless steel—allows us to produce micrometer-scale concentration modulations of the elements that are contained in 316L in the Ti-6Al-4V matrix. The corresponding phase stability modulation creates a fine scale–modulated β + α′ dual-phase microstructure that exhibits a progressive transformation-induced plasticity effect, which leads to a high tensile strength of ~1.3 gigapascals with a uniform elongation of ~9% and an excellent work-hardening capacity of >300 megapascals. This approach creates a pathway for concentration-modulated heterogeneous alloy design for structural and functional applications.