Microstructure and mechanical properties of intermetallic Al3Ti alloy with residual aluminum.

Intermetallic Al 3 Ti alloys with different volume fractions of residual aluminum were synthesized via reactive foil sintering in vacuum condition using commercial purity aluminum foils and Ti-6Al-4V alloy foils. Microstructure evolution, elemental analysis, fracture mechanism and phase identification were performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique, respectively. Mechanical properties were measured by quasi-static compression and Vickers hardness tests. Experimental results indicated that the ductile phase Al distributes in the grain boundaries of the brittle matrix Al 3 Ti, which increases the compression failure strain of the Al 3 Ti alloy dramatically compared with the monolithic intermetallic Al 3 Ti alloy. The compressive stress-strain curve showed a typical elastic-plastic deformation behavior. Moreover, it also demonstrated that the post-heat treatment plays an important role in the mechanical properties due to the formation of α-Al 2 O 3 and Al 3 Ti grain coarsening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]