Toughening effects of Mo and Nb addition on impact toughness and crack resistance of titanium alloys

Ti-6Al,Ti-6Al-2Mo and Ti-6Al-3Nb alloys were prepared to investigate the toughening effects ofβstabilizers Mo and Nb on impact toughness and crack resistance of titanium alloys.Instrumented Charpy impact tests showed that the total impact absorbed energy of Ti-6Al-2Mo and Ti-6Al-3Nb(∼64 J)were two times higher than that of Ti-6Al(∼30 J),indicating the higher impact toughness of Ti-6Al-2Mo and Ti-6Al-3Nb alloys.Analysis of load-displacement curves revealed the similar crack initiation energy of Ti-6Al,Ti-6Al-2Mo and Ti-6Al-3Nb(15.4 J,16.1 J and 15.0 J,respectively).However,the higher crack propagation energy of Ti-6Al-2Mo and Ti-6Al-3Nb(46.7 J and 48.3 J,respectively)were about three times higher than that of Ti-6Al(14.4 J),indicating the stronger resistance to crack propagation in Ti-6Al-2Mo and Ti-6Al-3Nb.Post-mortem analysis of impact samples demonstrated that the increased dislocation density and deformation twinning were mainly responsible for the stronger resistance to crack propagation in Ti-6Al-2Mo and Ti-6Al-3Nb.Due to the invisibility of dislocation activation and deformation twinning during the Charpy impact process,a mathematical model has been proposed to evaluate the effects of Al,Mo and Nb elements on dislocation mobility based on the Yu Rui-huang electron theory.Addition of Mo and Nb elements significantly improved the dislocation mobility in Ti-6Al-2Mo and Ti-6Al-3Nb compared to that in Ti-6Al alloy.Therefore,more dislocations were activated in Ti-6Al-2Mo and Ti-6Al-3Nb which supplied the larger plastic deformation under impact loading.A dislocation-based model also has been proposed to interpret the nucleation and propagation of deformation twinning under the impact loading.Dislocation pileup atα/βinterfaces provided potential sites for nucleation of deformation twinning in Ti-6Al-2Mo and Ti-6Al-3Nb.Furthermore,deformation twinning facilitated the dislocation motion inαgrains with hard orientations.The increased dislocation mobility and deformation twinning were responsible for the stronger crack resistance as well as the higher impact toughness of Ti-6Al-2Mo and Ti-6Al-3Nb alloys.