Effect of heat treatment on the tensile behavior of selective laser melted Ti-6Al-4V by in situ X-ray characterization

Abstract Selective Laser Melted Ti-6Al-4V (as-SLMed) exhibits decreased yield strength, increased work hardening, and increased ductility after heat treatment at 730 °C (HT-730) or 900 °C (HT-900) for 2 h. To understand the change of mechanical properties, in situ high energy X-ray diffraction (HEXRD) is used to examine the phase composition, load partitioning, slip system activity, and dislocation density evolution in all three specimens. The as-SLMed specimen is dominated by martensitic α΄. After heat treatment, α΄ partly or fully decomposes into α+β, reducing the yield strength. In HT-730, β precipitates with confined size show much higher lattice strain than the α΄/α matrix during deformation; in HT-900, the lattice strain difference is mostly eliminated. This is a key reason for the increased ductility in HT-900. From the anisotropic lattice strain development, basal slip is identified as the easiest slip system in α΄/α. Using an elasto-plastic self-consistent (EPSC) model, the critical resolved shear stress ratio between prismatic slip and basal slip (CRSSprism/CRSSbasal) is estimated to be 1.31 and 1.16 in the as-SLMed and the HT-900 specimens, respectively. The α phase in HT-900 is able to activate multiple slip systems and accumulate more dislocations during plastic deformation. This explains why HT-900 has better ductility and higher work hardening rate than the other two specimens.