Microstructure and mechanical properties of intermetallic Al3Ti alloy with residual aluminum

Intermetallic Al3Ti 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 Al3Ti, which increases the compression failure strain of the Al3Ti alloy dramatically compared with the monolithic intermetallic Al3Ti 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-Al2O3 and Al3Ti grain coarsening. Keywords: Intermetallic, Residual aluminum, Mechanical property, Post heat-treatment