Microstructure Evolution of Ti-6Al-4Fe-0.25Si through Aging Heat Treatment

The effect of aging heat treatment on microstructure evolution of the Ti-6Al-4Fe-0.25Si alloy with an initial microstructure of an elongated alpha was investigated. Aging treatments of the samples were carried out at 550 degrees C for up to 100 hours. The microstructure of the 5 hours heat-treated sample consisted of alpha grains, beta matrix and some TiFe intermetallic compounds that were precipitated from the beta matrix. Increasing the aging time to 10 hours, most of the beta matrix was decomposed to very fine alpha grains (similar to 0.5 mu m) and TiFe, and thus the volume fraction of the beta matrix was significantly decreased. EBSD analysis revealed that newly formed tertiary-alpha-grains in the vicinity of TiFe had high angle boundaries with respect to the primary and secondary alpha grains. As a result of these phase transformations during aging, the fraction of the alpha/alpha grain boundary was increased while that of the alpha/beta phase boundary was decreased.