Uncovering the hierarchical clusters in the heat-affected zone of an electron beam weldedα/βtitanium alloy joint

Using high-resolution transmission Kikuchi diffraction(TKD)and transmission electron microscopy(TEM),we examined the hierarchical clusters that form in situ in the heat-affected zone(HAZ),which are com-monly referred to as“ghost”structures,of bimodal titanium alloy Ti-5Al-2Sn-2Zr-4Mo-4Cr(wt%,TC17).The ghost structures are enriched with Al elements but poor in Mo and Cr compared to the surroundingβmatrix.TKD results show that the ghost structure in middle-HAZ mainly consists ofα_(L)laths with a high-angle grain boundary,which exhibits the classic Burgers orientation relationship(BOR)with the host matrix,while it encircles theα_(P)grains in far-HAZ.And the ghost structure is evidenced to form via in-complete martensitic transformation.TEM results further confirm that the ghost structure is composed ofαL and tinyβ_(L)laths with BOR,with the former being enriched with Al and poor with Cr and Mo,while the latter is the opposite.Interestingly,twoα_(L)variant clusters with a check-mark morphology are fre-quently observed viewed along[0001]_(αL)//[110]_(βL)directions,which are dominated by the crystallographic and geometrical relationships betweenαandβphases.Based on the microstructural characterization,it is hypothesized that the ghost structure is transformed from the initialα_(P)phase,due to the coupling ef-fect of high thermal stress(which induces the formation of a large number of dislocations)and element diffusion caused by sudden temperature increase and plunge cooling in the HAZ during the welding pro-cess.