Microstructural refinement and mechanical properties improvement of elemental powder metallurgy processed Ti-46.6Al-1.4Mn-2Mo alloy by carbon addition

Strengthening of a gamma TiAl alloy was sought by a chemical modification of the composition with carbon. Up to 0.6 at. pct of carbon was added to the Ti-46.6Al-1.4Mn-2Mo alloy processed by elemental powder metallurgy. Carbon addition resulted in considerable microstructural changes such as refinement, by a factor of about 2, of the lamellar microstructure and carbide precipitation. The cause of the lamellar structure refinement is twofold, increased heterogeneous nucleation rate and decreased γ platelet growth rate, the net result of which was a retarded diffusional transformation kinetics of α to α/γ lamellae. As a consequence of the microstructural changes, the high-temperature tensile properties and the creep properties of the alloy were significantly improved. Anomalous hardening was also observed at 800 °C, resulting in a tensile yield strength of 700 MPa. The strengthening effect of carbon was realized by the microstructural refinement and by precipitation hardening of intergranular as well as interlamellar Ti3AlC. In terms of the tensile properties and the creep properties, the optimum amount of carbon addition was 0.3 at. pct.